I ran into more discussion about the Internet Radio Equality Act today at The Tech Observer. There seems to be a lot of misinformation going around as to what this is all about. Apparently many people believe that copyright royalties are unregulated, and that Pandora and the independent net radio industry is trying to impose special regulations on the recording industry in order to support their business model. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
The federal government already regulates royalty rates. Pandora isn’t asking for special treatment, they just want the same treatment broadcasters in other mediums get. This isn’t a matter of Pandora trying to compete unfairly, this is a matter of the recording industry still being engaged in a campaign against independent & digital media that started with Napster. They have the information and the intelligence to know what an internet radio station can afford to pay in royalties, and they have intentionally set the bar too high because they want to make it impossible to compete with their favored distribution methods, or more to point because they’re still terrified by any form of media distribution outside their control. We are talking about an organization, a cartel really, that is willing to lie under oath and to subvert U.S. diplomatic leverage to force illegal police raids on foreign soil.
This is what happens when you allow monopolistic entities to flourish unabated: they use their economic and political power to crush competitors and innovators that threaten their business model. Choosing to do nothing about it ultimately damages free trade, especially when there are already regulations in place that happen to favor this kind of behavior in the market.
The result is disastrous for everyone, including Big Media; they have already managed to alienate many of the artists and trendsetters that are ultimately responsible for their success. What we are going to see is a continued increase in piracy, and the motivation will be political, not out of ignorance of intellectual property law or willful criminality. The modern pirate doesn’t download music because he can’t pay for it, or because doesn’t think the artist deserves money for the work, as much as because he wants the industry to fail and he wants to prove that DRM is ineffective and hinders legitimate use more than piracy.
None of them are afraid that if big media goes under music is going with it. They hope and expect that without this exploitative and inefficient monster we’ll start seeing music that is simultaneously more affordable for consumers and more profitable for the artists. Many pioneers in the music industry, as well as traditional independent artists who have always made their living more on live performances rather than record deals, are proving it’s possible, and they will continue to grow and improve as long as we push back against Big Media hard enough to give them room.
For more information about the Internet Radio Equality Act, and what you can do, check out savenetradio.org.
Popularity: 1% [?]
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