Free internet radio will be no more?

American Internet radio broadcasters are sounding the alarm: the day of their untimely death is marked July 15, 2007.

As far as we managed to figure out, in accordance with the new rules for paying remuneration, it is proposed to pay for the flow, i.e. for each song heard by each user. Otherwise it is difficult to say where the following amount came from: on the website of Di.fm radio station it is indicated that by July 15, in accordance with the new rules, the radio station will have to pay more than 2 (!) Million dollars .. The action of the radio station will stop free broadcasting.


')
On SaveNetRadio.org, they are calling to take feasible measures in repealing the Copyright Royalty Board resolution adopted on March 2 (in free translation “Council for author's remuneration”). In accordance with this decree, the rates of copyright payments are increased from 7/100 cents in 2005 to 19/100 cents in 2010 for each song that is broadcast on the Internet. Also abolished the rule of calculation of payments to authors for small Internet radio stations as a share of total income. This item was reasoned by the fact that often the income level of the broadcaster is lower than the amount of copyright payments. The Council canceled this clause, pointing out that the size of the station and its ability to generate profits was not related to the market value of intellectual property. At the same time, advertising in such media is just beginning to emerge, and most radio stations struggle to make ends meet.
Among other things, as part of the increase, commercial broadcasters will have to pay an additional $ 500 in advance for each stream (channel or station);
Moreover, these rules apply to the period since 2006!

Who is for, who is against? Do you think that the arguments that advertising in online radio is not yet effective and the complexity of small radio stations are relevant in this case?

If you live in America, please visit SaveNetRadio.org

References:
SaveNetRadio http://www.savenetradio.org/
Call on Di.fm page http://www.di.fm/blog/read/2007/05/we-will-go-silent-unless-new-royalty.html
About the resolution on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_Royalty_Board
The text of the document from which it all started http://www.loc.gov/crb/proceedings/2005-1/rates-terms2005-1.pdf

The original of this post can be read in our blog.