Time to get involved—I’m sick of the government bowing down to the RIAA with their decades old business models and pulling laws out of their ass for the Internet, the one place where there should be no laws. The attempt by the Copyright Royalty Board to raise Internet radio rates does nothing but shut down the little guy and protect Top 40 terrestrial radio stations. I’m sorry, but ummm, the last time I checked, nobody listens to FM radio anymore—unless it’s NPR, of course. In my next car, all I want is an iPod dock and NPR. Societal change cannot be stopped with laws.

With 50 million listeners per month and the threat of rate increases from $20 thousand to $600 thousand [Soma FM's rate increase, via Newsweek], I have a feeling Internet radio isn’t going anywhere. It would be too fucked up to watch di.fm disappear—they’ve been around as long as I can remember.

Oh, and NPR, which broadcasts over 300 local stations online, is leading the fight. They’re funded by taxpayer dollars, not advertising, so they can’t afford the royalty rate increase (and they don’t even play music anyway). Duh.

Get involved and support the Internet Radio Equality Act. Or at least post a banner wherever you can.

A commenter over at Slashdot gives an insightful explanation of why we have the DMCA even though it is, umm, not worth having:

All of this is just my rather long-winded way of trying to explain why so many people (people in government in particular) are hooked on strong IP law (including the DMCA, DRM, and anti-circumvention), and proprietary software: they see it as a way to ensure that the U.S. can still make money doing the only thing that we seem to be good at. It may not seem at first glance to make a whole lot of sense, particularly to non-Americans, but I’ve met a lot of fairly powerful people who are very, very nervous about where the New/Global Economy is headed, and how the U.S. is going to maintain its standard of living [2] in the future.

Why strong IP law is so attractive [via Slashdot]

I really, really hate the RIAA. I’m a musician and I support the protection of copyright. However, I also support the protection of college students’ rights and a free market economy. When the signs are there that the industry needs to make changes, why fight that? Change is good, and necessary.

Why is Apple’s iTunes so successful? Because it makes it easier to pay for music than download it elsewhere. They don’t sell music—they sell a service. Why do we go to Amazon to buy a book rather than the 100s of other sites? Because they sell a service that is better than anything else on the Internet.

You can’t wage a war with your consumers. College students are broke, yet are the driving force of promoting music and making or breaking artists. They’ll screw you over just the same in the long run.

To top it all off, when students pay the settlement fee, they “look forward to future business.”

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Try this.

If you got one of these letters, get a lawyer, who will simply tell you just to ignore it. The RIAA hasn’t the manpower to pursue every single lawsuit, which is why they are trying to cheat college students into paying a simple fine rather than being sued. It’s a joke. I have a feeling the lawsuits will turn the other direction and people will begin suing the RIAA soon…just watch.

Anyone get one of these letters yet? Let’s hear about it…