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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Alan Haber" <zoogang@cox.net> |
| Subject | Re: the webcasters' Day of Silence tomorrow |
| Date | Tue, 26 Jun 2007 18:50:36 -0400 |
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Well said, Stewart. And extremely right on, WFMU!
By the way, the Day of Silence looks to be a huge success, with "a massive
response by listeners," according to the RAIN newsletter. For those of you
interested, here is the latest information:
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/062607/index.shtml.
Alan
-----Original Message-----
From: audities-owner@smoe.org [mailto:audities-owner@smoe.org] On Behalf Of
Stewart Mason
Sent: Tuesday, June 26, 2007 6:29 PM
To: audities@smoe.org
Subject: Re: the webcasters' Day of Silence tomorrow
----- Original Message -----
From: "Eytan Mirsky" <eytanmirsky@hotmail.com>
> "Here in Los Angeles KCRW has been running a wholly self-serving
> campaign
And then the rest of the letter goes on to be -- IRONY! -- wholly
self-serving, hypocritically couching its whiny-ass-titty-baby moan
about how they want the money they've worked so hard for (I'll pause
here while everyone who has dealt with publishing admin has a good
chuckle over this) as "We're looking out for you, our cash cows...I
mean, songwriters...and we only have your interst in our pure and
unsullied hearts." Cut me a piece.
Personally, I prefer WFMU's approach (by the way, publishing
jackasses, where's the big corporate money behind FMU, huh?) to the
Day of Silence, which is better described as The Day Of Up Yours,
RIAA:
"Across the U.S. today, thousands of internet radio stations are
observing a national Day of Silence to protest new webcasting rates
set by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board. These new rates, which will
go into effect on July 15 (and are retroactive to January 1, 2006),
will drastically increase the royalties webcasters must pay to
SoundExchange, an offshoot of the RIAA responsible for distributing
this money to artists.
WFMU believes in compensating artists. We currently pay webcasting
royalties to SoundExchange and will continue to do so, but we are
protesting the new rate scheme for a number of reasons:
1. Under the new rates, non-commercial webcasters only get a break on
the commercial royalty rate if they maintain small listenership
numbers. In order to afford the astronomical new rates, WFMU may have
to cap online listenership on our streams, limiting the exposure we
give to independent artists by blocking our accessibility to music
fans.
2. SoundExchange has not been dutifully distributing webcasting
royalties to musicians, claiming on their website that they are unable
to locate thousands of artists including Kraftwerk, The Replacements,
Pizzicato Five, The Muffs, and even Warren G!
Instead of webcasting silence today, WFMU has decided to boycott all
music that is registered with the RIAA and/or SoundExchange. Today,
you will hear songs from live performances on WFMU, material from the
public domain, orphaned works, music from bands and record labels that
have signed a waiver releasing WFMU from SoundExchange's unreasonable
royalty scheme, and music from artists that SoundExchange has
neglected to pay.
We hope that this sends the message that WFMU is fully capable of
airing great music that falls outside of the RIAA and SoundExchange's
control.
If you would like to protest the new webcasting royalty rates, please
call or write to your Representatives and Senators before July 15, and
tell them to support the Internet Radio Equality Act (S. 1353 and HR.
2060). Visit SaveNetRadio.org for more information, including a quick
way to look up contact info for your elected officials.
So basically, SoundExchange can suck it.
S
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