me rite gud

So I did fire off emails to my congressional peeps (Clinton, McNulty & Schumer) about the net radio thing. That was yesterday and already I got back a stock answer from Clinton:

“Dear Mr. McEwen:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me regarding the proposed new royalty rates for online radio. I always enjoy hearing from New Yorkers about challenging public policy issues that are important to them, and I particularly appreciate your concerns regarding the future of I nternet radio. As you may know, I am a strong supporter of maintaining an open Internet that fosters innovation. No other communications medium in recent history has had such a profound impact on the expression of speech, education, the dissemination of information and the exchange of ideas.

Online radio is a great example of how the Internet has helped to cultivate innovation and offered consumers access to new an d personalized information. However, the great technological and commercial progress that has come with the ongoing development of the Internet has also brought with it numerous new public policy dilemmas, such as how to balance copyright protection for music and other property with the innovation that the Internet continues to cultivate.

As you know, in March 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) proposed a new online radio royalty structure, which would amend the system that has been in place since 2002 and establish a new scale for royalties charged to I nternet radio companies on a per-song, per-listener basis. The proposed rates will begin at 0.08 cents per song per listener, retroactive to January 1, 2006 , and will reach 0.19 cents per song per listener in 2010. The CRB has since announced that it will hear appeals of its previous ruling. Your concerns about this matter are significant and I hope that this period for appeal will enable the CRB to carefully consider points of view like yours.

Thank you again for sharing your concerns regarding these important I nternet radio issues with me. Please be assured that I will continue to follow this issue closely and that I will
keep your views in mind in the future if related measures come before the Senate. For more informa tion on my support for an open I nternet and other important issues before the United States Senate, please visit my website at http://clinton.senate.gov . “

While I think its great that her office is savvy enough to be able to categorize and reply to my message so quickly, I really wish she would actually say something. I already know about whats going on the issue. I’m thrilled that she knows whats going on too. But no where in the message is there anything about whether she supports the rate hike or not. Or more importantly, whether she plans to do anything about it. If I had to take a wild guess I would say she is running for president and doesn’t want to piss anyone off.

Maybe I’ll get something more meaningful from my other reps.

[rant]

The whole music industry vs the world thing has taken a ridiculous new turn. This post on the daily kos has me feeling like someone pulled a fast one. Apparently if you record a song and then play it on a streaming Internet radio server then SoundExchange has the right to collect a royalty. Then you have to pay them a membership fee if you want to get the royalty they have collected for you. And what if you want to allow anyone to play the song royalty free? Tough crap.

This is on top of the huge royalty rate increase that is about to kill Internet radio in the States.  Speaking of which,  the same thing is now going to happen with Internet radio that happened to guitar tablature.  Everything is going to shift to other countries that don’t have such tight controls on content.

This kinda stuff drives me nuts. I’m not really one for firing off form letters to my representatives willy nilly but I think this warrants some correspondance.

I’ve been kinda ambivalent on the whole downloading music issue.  I’m guilty of just downloading from iTunes  because its easy and it satisfies my need for instant gratification. Still I think the way the RIAA is going after downloaders is deplorable. This kind of behavior is sickening and has no place in society.   The way they have now worked their way into this royalty racket is just another step way over the line.

I think a boycott of music from labels that are RIAA members is not a bad idea.  RIAAradar.com maintains a great list of “RIAA-free” bands.  Arcade Fire,  The Shins, and Elliot Smith just to name a few.  What to do about someone like Wilco (on Nonesuch)? Try to see them live.  Write to the label and complain about what the RIAA is doing in their name.

[/rant]

“As a reward for stealing YEAR ZERO, we’ve prepared the next batch of multitrack audio files for you to download”

As a big fan of the free spread of knowlodge I have to give big props to nine inch nails for releasing more tracks in garage band format.  Having personally spent many frickin hours trying to assembly songs I would have loved to see how it was done for real.  Giving people this kinda of insight into their music is brillant  (even if I can’t say I’m quite the fan I was back in the Pretty Hate Machine day)