[randytsuch]

Did not see this posted anywhere, in a search, so I thought I would. 
The following is an email that came today, from Pandora.
I have not heard about this before, has anybody?

Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help.  The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora.  The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all.  Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters.  I hope that you will consider joining us. 

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetradio/issues/alert/?alertid=9631541 

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.   

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception.  As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians.  The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential. 

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

 
-Tim Westergren
(Pandora founder)

[Gordy]

I wrote a few weeks back when my local station, XPN, mentioned it in their newsletter.  Radio Paradise has also been mentioning it "on air" and has a link at their site too!

Hey! How is the Opus working out?  pm me!!!

[Christof]

This pisses me off big time. 

I have written/told everyone I know and posted the same type of links on various boards.  I even posted here a few weeks back in this thread but it seemed to go over everyones head or atleast nobody cared enough to express their concerns.

  c.

[jakepunk]

My senator's office replied to me via e-mail, "While no legislation regarding this newly ruled copyright policy is pending before the Senate, you may be certain that I will keep your concerns in mind should the Senate consider relevant legislation."  Unless a bill is introduced, Internet radio will be dead soon.

[macrojack]

This is how our free market system works. The incumbent pays the right people to legislate away any possibility of a better mousetrap jeopardizing his hold on the market. This is one of the reasons that monopolies are bad. They stifle competition by limiting the choices available to the consumer. Clear Channel must be approaching monopoly status.

[jrebman]

Update:  Here's more from Tim...

---
Hi, Tim again,
First, I wanted to thank you again for the support last week.  It was absolutely
overwhelming.  More than 200,000 Pandora listeners contacted their congressional
representatives!  The entire fax infrastructure on Capitol Hill ground to a halt.
We had to deliver faxes manually - literally boxes full of them were delivered to
every office in the Capitol building.
The result has been swift and dramatic: more than a million people have already joined
the cause!  There is now a bill just being introduced called the "
Internet Radio Equality Act" to fix the problem and save Internet
radio -and Pandora- from obliteration.
I'd like to ask you to do one more thing which is
to call and ask your Congressperson to co-sponsor the
Internet Radio Equality Act:

This fight for our life is not over, but there has been a marked shift in momentum.
Thanks to your efforts, this vital channel for musical diversity has a hope of finally
being treated fairly and being allowed to grow and nurture a newly empowered class
of independent musicians.
Your opinion matters to your representatives - so please take just a minute to call.

---

I just called my rep. and his office says he is getting lots of calls on this -- not sure whether or not he will co-sponsor, but my hope is that he will do the right thing when it comes time to defend the free internet (this time ).

-- Jim

[gitarretyp]

I haven't seen much coverage of this, but if you thought independent artists (artists not associated with the RIAA) were safe, think again: more disgusting info from the RIAA.