RSSEFF: New Legislation Will Kill Net Radio
By Ed Oswald | Published April 27, 2006, 3:23 PM
The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned that proposed legislation now making its way through the Senate might put an end to music webcasts that use MP3 or other non-protected streaming formats. Services like Live365, Shoutcast, and smaller radio stations would be affected, and may be forced to use DRM technogy.
It would also mean an end to the streaming radio stations in iTunes as well. The iTunes stations also use DRM-less formats, the EFF said.
Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and majority leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn. Introduced the provision as part of a larger bill Wednesday aimed at ensuring that copyright holders are compensated as satellite radio allows its users to save programming.
"I believe our laws must strike the proper balance between fostering new businesses and technology and protecting the property rights of the artists whose music is being played," Feinstein said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the issue Wednesday.
Called the PERFORM Act, short for the "Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music Act of 2006," the bill would force satellite providers to compensate the record industry for songs saved on receivers. Industry executives say such a law is necessary so that there are no loopholes in regulations governing downloadable music.
Although Sirius has signed an agreement with the record labels to pay such royalties, XM has refused. The company says that the new law is the equivalent of a tax on satellite radio, and the technology records programming, not specific songs.
However, the law seems to go further than just satellite radio, and could end up affecting Internet radio stations as well -- most of which are low-budget operations already struggling to make the required licensing payments to record labels.
"Webcasters who use the statutory SoundExchange licenses to play music would have to give up MP3 streaming in favor of a DRM-restricted, proprietary formats that impose restrictions on any recordings made," the EFF's Fred von Lohmann said.
Currently, webcasters only have to use DRM if the original format is DRM-protected. The PERFORM Act would change that, and only allow "reasonable recording" -- essentially tape recorder-like copies with no way of fast-forwarding or rewinding to specific spots.
"So much for great time-shifting technologies like Streamripper and RadioLover," Von Lohmann mused.
The bill is currently under review in the Senate Judiciary Committee with a full Senate vote not likely for several months, at least.
As an artist myself, I don't agree with stealing music. Having said that, here is my take on downloading music. I believe that the internet is one of the best promotional tools available! Big Brother and the rest of the music gestapo doesn't want people to listen to the artists and tracks that the major labels are not heavily promoting. They only want you to listen to what they tell you to. Thriving off of the people that buy an album for 1 song. Remeber all the bands you have found to be crap because you heard tracks other than the "radio songs", not to mention all the artists you have discovered because of net radio and downloading MP3s. I feel that if you download music and like the band, you should buy the disc at some point and support the artist! Enjoy the freedom of Net Radio while you can. Even if the bill passes, people are still gonna do it. Damn the man! Save the empire!
http://www.obscuredescension.com
http://www.myspace.com/obscuredescension
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|If you want music on the cheap with no frills attached go to www.allofmp3.com It costs about $1.00 for a full album download. I can't believe everyone doesn't use this!
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|Wow! Awesome! Thank You!
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|If you want to listen to new sorts of music, then www.pandora.com is very good too.
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|If you can play it on a speaker you can record it. So no amount of technological tampering will stop people from copying the material, whether it be from the internet, the television or the radio. And I doubt record companies are willing to sacrifice all airplay to insure that nothing is copied. All they're doing is sqeezing more while giving less. There's a reason young people are now getting into collecting old LPs.
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|The bill would have horrible consequences on Fair Use, while locking way digital culture behind more code and rules. Does RIAA need another blunt instrument to enforce their monopoly on culture? No!
Brian Rowe
www.FreedomForIP.org
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|"Bye bye miss American pie, Drove my Chevy to the levee but the levee was dry...."
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|More like, "Drove my chevy to the levee, but chevy broke down and the levee was gone."
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|Freedom to tinker vs. TPM so to speak.
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|Some one wrote below (fill up your HDs before it is too late) "dun did dat" and got a train load of them plus six kids who know how to use them and they all ready hate the "AAs" . Only time will tell how many grand kids. so pass the HD's on with the motto "Let them make it and we will break it".
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|the way I see it the internet will be no more eventually in one of 2 ways. either the big corporations and the goverment will censor everything or get people to pay for every little thing that goes on on the net. or virus writers will mess it up by putting so many viruses on the net that you can get infected with one no matter what you do or how you connect to it.
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|if number 1 happens, then i sincerely hope number 2 happens.
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|Anti-consumer/pro-rich-pig culture continues. By the time these idiots get done screwing up the internet, all the users will have moved on to something else.
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|I seriously doubt that Dianne Feinstein ever listened to any music webcast and has NO idea what she's proposing here. It figures though that's she's from CA, the land of make believe and "Arnold" the dictator. Jeez lady, just join the local knitting club and leave our music venues alone. Or better yet, go get a facelift, you'll feel younger, look better and will be allowed entrance to a club on Sunset Strip to dance your a** off...probably to music that the DJ ripped off from his friend's pirated collection.
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|As has been pointed out, there are two other co-sponsors for the bill. So, big man, you pickin' on the lady for partisan reasons, or are you just an idiot?
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|The US Senate consists of 100 elite class idiots. None dare ask why SONY/BMG is a major seller of CD/DVD burners and blank media. Some thieves use this stuff to make bootleg copies of their own copyrighted music and movies. You could drop a pile of that stuff into their laps, and none of those crooked politicians are gonna jump SONY's a$$ in front of the C-SPAN cameras.
I'll take them seriously; when crooked RIAA/MPAA members are held responsible for their own greed. These items can be sold by firms not involved with thw RIAA/MPAA cabal, and purchased by people who want to use them for other purposes...
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|The Republican attack on music strikes again. They're wrong on every single issue, and controlling congress, they're wrong again. Soon you will have to "pay to play" or rather, listen to every single instance of music.
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|Dianna Feinstein is spearheading this legislation and she is a democrat.
Why do people like you always have to try to blame everything on republicans?
Can't we all just get along?
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|Hey, a-hole, you notice the other two names connected to it, or did you forget to take your partisan blinders off? Dee-da-dee!!!
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|"Why does everybody blame everything on Republicans?"
Republicans are evil. Republicans are uninterested in the welfare of the United States. Their only only interest is in getting donations from lobbying interests and in their own greed . They have taken corruption of the federal legislative process to new levels.
This is why everybody blames everything on Republicans.
If the Democrats controlled anything we could blame them. They do not, so they are not the issue. Blaming them for the sinking state of the United States is a subterfuge and a waste of time and effort.
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|Sure.
The day you all learn to worship me. :)
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|This is exactly what I'm talking about.
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|Yet another member of the jackass democrap party.
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|Thanks for makin' my point, moron.
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|What? The democratic party is the one who chose the jackass, not me, and they made a good choice, for once. I'm just stating facts. I don't see how that proves any points or how it makes me a moron. I think you're just upset about being a moron and calling everybody else one in retaliation. BTW, try reading the entire thread before posting in the future.
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|Dianne Feinstein is one crazy b****!
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|Graham and Frist are sweethearts, tho, huh?
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|I don't know them, but I know Feinstein.
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|Yeah right. Sleepin' with her?
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|so how long until theres an uprising
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|Take away PC_Tool's Pandora and you will see an uprising, REAL quick!
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|Bah
I tried creating an All-Female Punk station yesterday after work.
Doesn't work. They keep putting punk bands with male leads in there.
bia***es.
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|Those who say they don't vote because it doesn't matter need to get off your @sses next election.
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|Yeah? Who ya gonna vote for? I see both major parties fu@kin' this up.
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|I don't recall moving to Iraq.
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|"I don't recall moving to Iraq."
Did I miss something?
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|Evidently they moved us to Mozambique
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|Wouldn't this effect over the air radio stations as well?
I think the oil companies should buy up the music industry, then they could rule the freakin world. They both seem to be run in the same fashion.
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|No, they have to be members of ASCAP and as such they pay royalties as a lump sum.
But they have plenty of restrictions on their broadcasting some of which are based on how much they pay.
Pay a lot - broadcast to a lot.
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|I'm all for enforcing fines/etc. against people who illegally distribute copyrighted music over the web, and heck, I don't see a huge problem with having copy protection mechanisms and such. This, however, is totally ridiculous. Worse than Nintendo Wii. Let's just ban iPods, ban CDRW and DVDRW drives, usb thumb drives, cameras, hard drives--ditch them all. After all, they all HAVE THE POTENTIAL to be abused, so why would any government allow them?
Punish the guilty, not the innocent. Forcing DRM is bad for everyone and everything that breathes, because DRM is designed to prevent illegal copying--it was made by Sony for their business. What if Microsoft made it? Can anyone in these forums even imagine the public outrage of the government "FORCING" us to use Microsoft products??? Sony, on the other hand, hasn't become evil yet...
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|sony, not evil ?
rootkit debacle, anyone ?
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|Damn, they are just trying to kill everything aren't they.
I think we should just go back to BBS, maintained locally by neighborhood people, this is just getting stupid.
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|I couldn't agree with you more.
Due to big business and advertising and greed the Internet is starting to suck really bad.
It's starting to get to the point that it's difficult for me to even want to be on it anymore. It's almost a waste of my time.
I think I may just get rid of it, and go back to just doing stuff outside, using the phone book, and talking to my friends on the phone or in person by the backyard grill.
I'll also use my cassette recorder to tape any freaking song I feel like off the radio.
People are jackasses.
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|If this bill goes through, EVERYONE will regret it.
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|Feh.
I guess that's the end of Pandora. Unless they are working on a new interface/distribution method.
Why do these fat ba$tards have to ruin every good service to come along that makes life just a smidgen more enjoyable?
I've lost count of the number of bands Pandora has introduced me to that have blown me away. I've amazon'd, ripped, and flac'd about 13 CDs I'd have never heard of otherwise.
Heh...and they *will* lose my listenership if they begin using DRM. I refuse to partake in such absurdity.
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|This blurb is precisely the reason why those dunder heads at RIAA/MPAA, need to be contacted.
But we can't so they neither hear our ire nor our ideas for improvements..
A la the "...number of bands Pandora has introduced me to that have blown me away. I've amazon'd, ripped, and flac'd about 13 CDs I'd have never heard of otherwise." comment would be a PRIME example.
They just don't give a rat's petuitary gland half acre, and I guess that's they way the want it.
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|I must say that without Shoutcast and stations like it, my musical "awareness" would not be near what it is today. With the introduction of DRM in this picture, it will ensure that the record companies can still sell you a POS CD and get ALL the royalties for spoofing you.
I don't mind paying for my music, but I DO firmly believe I should be able to listen to it first instead of paying for a POS CD as there are NO refunds usually once you've opened the CD package.
I also firmly believe that I should be able to "Rip" a CD to make as many copies of it as I want, I can't tell you how many CD's I had to "rebuy" in the beginning because it got shattered or scratched ... sigh. Now-a-days I make copies of my original, play the copy so that I don't have to buy the origianl again. Now they're going to make that impossible to do unless you pay them "royalty" fees just to do that ... Down with DRM is my vote.
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|The RIAA/MPAA will soon control the digital world!!! They have more money then you do so they can BUY all the lawmakers..
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|rip while you can, get station ripper or streamripper going before the nazzis take over for good!
fill up your HDs before it is too late.
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|Don't worry. People will just stop using it and something else will come up.
Dianne keeps showing us that she is a paided for puppet. Her top money comes for Energy and Media companies. Her pockets are lined with there money.. Her husband owns a construction company making millions in Iraq also.
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|Oh, so Graham and Frist are your buds tho, right??? Pull your partisan head out of your a$$ and see the world!
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|Hey you lot - don't panic!
This will only affect the USA.
Everyone else is still fine...
You see, Dianne Feinstein and Bill Frist have no powers outside that country.
:-)
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|Not quite right there skimore.
What the RIAA/MPAA and others forget and We forget too is that WE the Purchasing Public give them the right (money) to do this. So if We want to take back that power All we have to do is Cut there Money Supply. which means don't purchase from itunes, Amazon,or any online merchant, No purchases any local merchants or Rentals. This is not just the US, but ALL of their Markets, Europe, Asia,North and South America. It would shock both RIAA/MPAA and the others that they have gone to the trough once too often.
The only thing is that has to be Simultaneous.
Lets say like Friday October 13, 2006 and Call it The Revenge of the Purchaser.
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|Exactly, very good plan ... this particular method would also work with anything else, like gas prices, petroleum products ...
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|You fail to see the point though. If you arnt in the US, it dosnt matter. The web reaches all corners of the globe. So if you stream from a site in America, you still get the filter. Gratz, America shafting the world once again.
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