Discussions of Internet radio often focus in those stations which play contemporary recordings and ignore the unique role that Internet radio has in preserving our cultural heritage. Just as the Internet has made it possible for ordinary people to make their opinions heard, Internet radio has given us a chance to recover popular culture of the 20th century -- in effect it's an invaluable museum that deserves special consideration and protections to assure that it remains viable.

The tragic fact is that we've lost a great deal of 20th century art because of neglect. It's a lot easier to review 14th century drama than 1950s comic books. While Project Guttenberg and similar efforts have helped preserve literature, far less has been done towards making the great radio shows, comedy and drama, of the 20th century available. There is no government funding for the preservation of popular culture.

Internet radio has been, in effect, a privately funded museum serving specialized needs. It has made The Shadow and Sam Spade available, without asking for Federal grants or corporate sponsorship.

As a matter of public policy, everything possible should be done to preserve and protect Internet radio. Perhaps the recording industry and commercial broadcasters should pay roylaties to Internet boradcasters who play old recordings where the copyright has expired. This will protect the artists from having their work lost or forgotten (and the recording industry say they're concerned about the artists) give the broadcasters an inducement to play works that might otherwise be neglected, and give us all a chance to keep up with our cultural heritage.

For those who want more modern music, there are plenty of really excellent unsigned artists who would be delighted to make their work available to Internet stations so that people will have a chance to hear them -- and will attend their concerts.

The recording industry has been trying very hard to preserve the past -- this is another way they can contribute.

Net broadcasters who use the popular mp3 shoutcast/icecast streaming format can easily thwart streamripping: we just stop sending the "metadata" that has the artist and track name information for display in the player, since it is this data which the streamripper programs use to automatically split up tracks and as RIAA-controlled SoundExchange says "turn Internet radio performances into a digital music library".

Ironically, the reason internet broadcasters send this metadata is because the DMCA mandates that we provide data on the artist and title that is now playing. Guess who was behind that requirement? (Note to RIAA: be careful what you wish for).

Rusty Hodge

SomaFM

Once again the RIAA is biting the proverbial hand that feeds them. Perhaps this is one of the last desperate measures of life support. With the exception of a few discs, most new music is worthless and isn't even worth the time to listen to. If the RIAA gave a remote hoot about its so called "artists" and industry, then it should step back and let the listening public decide. Either the music is going succeed or not. I would like to believe worthwhile music is timeless, savored by future generations, long after the RIAA's dying gasps are silenced.

I find it interesting that the RIAA (funded by the four major record companies) has once again demonstrated their continued ability to dictate broadcasting royalty rates to the Copyright Royalty Board, which last time I checked is still a government entity. I find it more interesting that SoundExchange (supposedly a non-profit that is supposed to collect and distribute royalties in a neutral fashion) dictating terms that could allow for reduced rates set by a government entity if internet broadcasters do as they say. Who died and gave them that right?

Surely others noticed that the day after that the CRB upheld the new internet royalty rates (a move clearly designed to put all internet radio stations out of business) that Clear Channel announced their sale to a private equity firm for $26.7 billion dollars? Clear Channel has proven they continue to be the smarter guys in the room- they saw the writing on the walls and got out on top, and managed to fool a bunch of guys with real money in the process!

Other tidbits of interest- why was it in the recording industries' best interest to help promote the price tag of the largest collection of radio stations in the world? BTW, you can thank the 1996 Telecommunications Act for creating Clear Channel- prior to then, companies couldn't own multiple radio stations in the same market. I would imagine that once the dust settles, we'll find that the new owner will make things cozier than Clear Channel did to support the RIAA.

Just what will stream ripping prevent anyway? I can pull terrestrial radio signal from my media card and rip any song that Clear Channel broadcasts in my market...is SoundExchange requiring some sort of controls for them? Ya- that's a rhetorical question- of course they aren't.

What's clear is this: the recording industry has regularly screwed both artists and fans alike, and yet by means that defy legal logic continue their ability to act as a monopoly, with no push back from a government that is supposed to protect consumers from such situations. They are struggling with the fact that technology is democratizing the entire industry, so they rest on lame attempts to legislate their way into a continued existence all the while suggesting that all of these efforts are really in the best interests of the artist. It's clear that the RIAA has no idea what they're doing. They're scared, they've lost control of distribution (their former strong arm), and currently making decisions that are actually hurting them more than helping. As they make these decisions I vocally cheer them on, for every decision they make that clearly shows a preference to old and worn out business models helps the little guy make things right. It's not entirely clear how, but this current effort shall also backfire on them- we just have to be patient enough to see how it does.

I sure wish that Salon or one of their journalistic peers would grow the gonads required to get underneath the covers on all this and report the entire sordid story in an easy to read fashion so that those that are passionate about music can get organized and fix these problems.

God bless the RIAA- keep doing what you are doing. It's making a lot of lives easier for many of us ;-)