I've written and recorded a new song asking the Librarian of Congress (James H. Billington) and the Register of Copyrights (Marybeth Peters) to reconsider the recent CARP rulings regarding the rates and terms for webcasters (and to also please protect our rights against the detrimental effects of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, since it does not contain adequate fair use provisions).
What does this all mean to the average person? Well, the average person will be greatly affected in the long run in terms of what kind of programming options will be made available in the future.
Less overhead in compulsory licensing fees means that more webcasters can afford to operate, and that means more channels and more selection from a larger, more diverse content base. It seems like this is a very important time in our history to have as many different voices being heard as possible.
All that I'm asking is for James and Marybeth to either reopen the CARP process afresh, or postpone it all together for another few years in order to enable webcasting services to flourish (much in the same way that cable television was allowed to develop in the 1980s).
So so sad when I listen to my radio
So sick and tired of what I'm watching on tv
There's so much more that I could see and learn and know about my future
James and Marybeth, can you help bring this to me?
I just want a chance to try it twice
I just want a chance to roll the dice
I just want a chance to get it right
I just want the right to stay and fight
I just want the right to search and find
I just want the right to my piece of mind
I just want the chance to know what's mine
I just want the chance to know
oh how I hope you're listening
because the clock is ticking
James and Marybeth, can you find a place for me?
James and Marybeth, can you help me to be free?
Newsweek's Steven Levy explains how the CARP rates will probably mean the end of independent webcasting:
Labels to Net Radio: Die Now
You’d think the record companies would love Internet tunes—instead they’re trying to kill them.
The record industry, with the help of Congress and the Copyright Office, may indeed make a shakeout inevitable. But I doubt that Jim Atkinson and his fellow independent Webcasters find the prospect of their extinction terribly desirable. Nor do the 77 million Americans who have at one time tuned in to Web radio and perhaps found something not featured on the lobotomized playlists of broadcast radio. If enough of those outraged listeners stream their objections to legislators, maybe Internet radio can be saved.
Bear with me this weekend as I get everything up and running smoothly in between postings.
I've decided to make my Blog the central location for that which is me, rather than just another one of several off shoots that never seem to connect in the middle: http://www.finetuning.com, http://www.lisarein.com, etc.
Talk soon!
