Defending the Truth

Please read the following letter passed on to me.

From Tim at Pandora,

I'm sorry to say that today Pandora, along with most Internet radio sites, is going off the air in observance of a Day Of Silence. We are doing this to bring to your attention a disastrous turn of events that threatens the existence of Pandora and all of internet radio. We need your help.

Ignoring all rationality and responding only to the lobbying of the RIAA, an arbitration committee in Washington DC has drastically increased the licensing fees Internet radio sites must pay to stream songs. Pandora's fees will triple, and are retroactive for eighteen months! Left unchanged by Congress, every day will be like today as internet radio sites start shutting down and the music dies.

A bill called the "Internet Radio Equality Act" has already been introduced in both the Senate (S. 1353) and House of Representatives (H.R. 2060) to fix the problem and save Internet radio--and Pandora--from obliteration.

I'd like to ask you to call your Congressional representatives today and ask them to become co-sponsors of the bill. It will only take a few minutes and you can find your Congresspersons and their phone numbers by entering your zip code here.

Your opinion matters to your representatives - so please take just a minute to call.

Visit Savenetradio.org to continue following the fight to Save Internet Radio.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.


-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)



Sounds alot like the attempts against PBS and Public Radio.

That is the kind of stuff, that really makes me nervous.

And the governement is also trying to shut down Talk Radio and 'brainwash' it in a way to make it PSR(Public Service Radio) because the Talk radio stations influence the people so much but are against what the government's actions are. So they are attempting(and failing) at trying to censor talk radio too.

Very interesting post. I know nothing of the subject so will not comment. My overall view of the internet is that it should be a completely open forum as long as crimes are not being committed. My belief is the U.S. Government should keep thier nose out of the internet, they have many more serious problems. I smell corporate money here influenceing greedy politicians. For instance I hear the ACC advertiesment on internet bullies. This is the most obsurd thing I have ever heard. If you can't take the heat just get out of the kitchen. Go to a cooler kitchen. The ACC does nothing about all the Fascist Republican vile hate speech on the Radio. These are air waves are owned by all the U.S. Citizens by the way. Yet the ACC wants to control speech on the internet. Is the Internet actually owned by anybody? I don't think so. The question here is are we seeing hypocrisy or Fascism at work. This also applies to your Internet Radio question. In other words if we are talking hypocrisy we are talking about political bribes, very common. If we are talking about Fascism, then we are talking about something very dangerous. This is the first question you need to answer so you will know how to combat your problem. The strategics of attaking hypocrisy and Fascism are very different.

A new study from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Nevada Reno says that net neutrality is a bad idea. Of course, that’s what you’d expect it to say. It was paid for by AT&T.
Free Press : AT&T Rigs Net Neutrality Study

At what again??????

When a station plays a song from an artist that artist receives royalties. That has always been a fact. So internet stations want to be exempt??? As technology changes and more people listen to the radio via internet station it would only be logical for the rates to change. No one is trying to silence anything, all they are doing is ensuring that artists are paid for the intellectual property. Anyone who would oppose this is a thief. I suppose those of you would not mind going to work and not getting paid either would you.

dmk

What no rebuttals???? Either you don't care, of your initial belief of what this bill did was in error, so which is it???????? Obviously from the title of the thread we must believe it was the latter, and thus you were proven wrong.

dmk

Sorry sarge, lifes been very busy for me lately and I have not been very active(my appoligies to all). I'll get caught up on all my responses soon.

Ok.
Do you think that Artists get paid royalties by local radio stations every time they play a song? Its the same damn thing. Internet radio's increase in fees have nothing to do with royalties. It has to do with the further control of all media by Corperate America. Just like the suggested funding stoppage to shut down PBS, its an attempt to silence any Medium that may tell it like it is. Corperate America is in control of our government through lobbiests and obscene 'political donations' influencing the votes. Both Major parties are at fault on this and most vote as the lobbiests ask.
Maybe they should also get a royalty payment if I play one of their songs with 4 or more of my friends in the room. I bought the album and me playing it may motivate my friends to also buy it. Same thing with any type of radio. The Pussies should enjoy the free advertising and shut up, that is if the artists are actually complaining, which I doubt.
Of course you probably think that these millionare Artists(Who get 10% of the total if they are lucky), and the blood sucking record companies, should get more money from all radio stations. That way the rich still get richer and the poor still get poorer.
You always seem to be on the side of the big businesses. Why is that?
Nothing should be free in an Imperialistic Country like America, right?