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May 8, 2004
One Voice Against the RIAA
The lobbyists working for the RIAA and the biggest few radio companies have convinced enough of our elected federal officials that the price of broadcasting a song over the Internet should far exceed the price of broadcasting a song over the airwaves to make it law.
The result is hundreds, if not thousands, of diverse and otherwise viable Internet-based radio stations have been forced out of business because Internet broadcasters have to pay not only higher per-song fees based on listenership, but they are required to pay both the original copyright holder (i.e., the songwriter) and the recording artist (terrestrial stations do not have to pay recording artists royalties if they are not the original songwriter because playing their recorded songs is akin to free advertising for their albums). This effect has hit me personally due to the forthcoming death of 97X, the best alternative rock station ever because, despite it being a profitable terrestrial radio station for well over a decade, it cannot afford to pay the onerous and unfair webcasting royalties.
Why? What is the rationale for this disparity?
Surely there's no benefit to consumers or the public, yet isn't that the primary mission of our government?
So, while I am but one person with a conscience and a blog, I will henceforth make it a personal goal to see the RIAA go down in flames (or at least be so radically changed that it can no longer act out in this despicable and anti-consumer fashion). Please...if you care at all about the evolution of culture in America, or even just about the music you're allowed to hear, read up on the issue. My suggestion is to start with Lawrence Lessig's latest book, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity. It serves as a good intellectual property law primer, history lesson, and summary of the status quo and why it needs to change.
As the saying goes, "if you aren't outraged, you haven't been paying attention."
Comments
There's a good interview with Lessig on KQED here: http://www.kqed.org/servlets/playClip?programId=RD19&episodeId=R405060900
Posted by: Craig at May 8, 2004 11:48 AM
we're all about non-RIAA music around ZP. check it out!
Posted by: richard at May 10, 2004 1:34 PM
Amen to reading the Lessig book; his arguments are very compelling.
The current form of copyright law has served us reasonably well for the past hundred years. Most of us got good benefit (society benefits from ease of access to cultural artifacts like music, and transformative fair use is the only way we create new things), some people got wealthy (intellectual property owners) and a few people got screwed (descendants of artists). However, it simply doesn't work the way it should in the age of the Internet. Right now, a very small number of people are becoming excessively wealthy (intellectual property owners), and almost everyone else gets screwed.
My biggest worry is that we aren't going to have any choice but to trash our current set of laws, and then set up new ones. And would you trust the current administration and its backers to come up with a set of intellectual property laws that serve the public interest?
Posted by: Bill at May 12, 2004 10:58 AM
Bill, you hit the nail on the head. Nice blog, BTW. :-)
Posted by: Craig at May 12, 2004 11:21 AM