{"id":439,"date":"2002-06-21T10:27:00","date_gmt":"2002-06-21T14:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/?p=439"},"modified":"2021-05-17T10:31:59","modified_gmt":"2021-05-17T14:31:59","slug":"downstream-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/2002\/06\/21\/downstream-this\/","title":{"rendered":"Downstream This"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/images\/musicbug.gif?resize=65%2C20&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"65\" height=\"20\">&nbsp; &nbsp; Why does the government hate the Internet? Once again the Library of Congress is cocking up royalty rates for Internet radio stations. I read <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A20412-2002Jun20.html\">this<\/a> today at the <i>Washington Post<\/i> site: &#8220;Internet radio stations must pay two sets of copyright fees. One royalty, set at 3.5 percent of total revenues, goes to the songwriters and publishers of a piece of music. The other fee &#8212; the one decided yesterday by Billington &#8212; is shared equally by the performers and the record company.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &#8220;Radio stations pay only the music publishing fee, not the royalties for musicians and record labels.&#8221;<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; You&#8217;d think a democracy would kind of provide a nice level playing field, wouldn&#8217;t it? I&#8217;d think if anything Internet radio should be given a break just because it sounds so bad. So why is the government ostracizing Internet radio, as if it were the invalid relative hidden in the attic? Simple: once again they&#8217;re showing their belief that anyone using the Internet is up to no good and must be punished.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I wonder if they know our own president has a homepage at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/\">whitehouse.gov<\/a>. Maybe we should e-mail Washington DC and provide this URL. The paradox would short circuit their brains, and we could finally get some peace and quiet around here.<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; By the way, please join the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.eff.org\/\">Electronic Frontier Foundation<\/a>. &nbsp; <b>[1:10 PM]<\/b><br>&nbsp; &nbsp; <b>Update<\/b>: Here&#8217;s an even greater irony. The Library of Congress has its <i>own<\/i> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.loc.gov\/today\/cyberlc\/\">webcasts<\/a>. <b>&#091;6:18 PM&#093;<\/b><br>&nbsp; &nbsp; <b>Update<\/b>: One Internet radio station, recently forced to shutdown, has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.somafm.com\/carp\/\">a good explanation<\/a> of what&#8217;s going on. <b>&#091;6:51 PM&#093;<\/b>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Why does the government hate the Internet? Once again the Library of Congress is cocking up royalty rates for Internet radio stations. I read this today at the Washington Post site: &#8220;Internet radio stations must pay two sets &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/2002\/06\/21\/downstream-this\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-news","category-tech"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":440,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439\/revisions\/440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wastinaway.net\/shortfatguy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}