Bill asks for reversal of Net radio fee hikes
Posted by Dennis Sellers 
Apr 26, 2007 at 1:50pm
A bill introduced in Congress on March 26 aims to overturn a controversial royalty fee hike that Internet radio advocates say threatens to cripple their services. The “Internet Radio Equality Act,” introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Don Manzullo (R-Ill.), would invalidate a March 2 decision by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board that calls for hiking royalty rates paid by Net radio operators, according to CNET.
“You can’t put an economic chokehold on this emerging force of democracy,” Inslee said in a statement e-mailed to CNET by a spokeswoman. “There has to be a business model that allows creative Webcasters to thrive and the existing rule removes all the oxygen from this space.”
The bill’s introduction comes less than two weeks after the CRB declined to reconsider most of its decision. Small Webcasters, National Public Radio, Clear Channel Communications and others had filed petitions for a rehearing. Some have indicated they are considering filing an appeal of the rules in court. If it were to stand, the CRB’s existing ruling (PDF) would result in fee increases on Internet radio operators ranging from 300 to 1200 percent between 2006 and 2012, according to a group called SaveNetRadio, which has been lobbying Congress for relief.
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Dennis Sellers
Dennis has been a newspaper editor/reporter (seven years) and teacher (seven years). He has over 10,000 magazine, newspaper and online articles to his credit. He has also covered the Mac and tech industries for over a decade for such online publications as MacCentral, MacMinute and now MacsimumNews.
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