ihoby wog

I am writing to you in regards to the soon to be decided issue of Internet Radio, what is being proposed by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and the CARP report issued by the United States Copyright Office (Docket No. 2000-9 CARP DTRA1&2) and the Notice and Record keeping for Use of Sound Recordings Under Statutory License (Docket No. RM 2002-1 37 CFR Part 201).

I strongly urge to you not let this pass into law for several reasons, both from the perspective of a producer and of a listener:

1. Restricting independent internet radio will stifle musical culture.
Currently, music of all kinds from around the globe are available to be experienced. History, culture, art and diverse points of view are contained in the music and spoken word being broadcast. I personally have enjoyed a dramatic widening of my musical world view since finding particular independent internet radio stations – stations which are coincidentally, free from annoying advertisements and pointless disc jockey talking. Restrictions will act as a censor to this new range of cultural diversity and further deaden our society with the status quo of inbred corporate selections of what music is most likely to return the most profit.

2. Restricting independent internet radio will re-establish an unfair advantage the major record labels have over independent labels and artists.
Internet radio is one of the few places that new, underground or international artists can be heard by large potential audiences in a non-live performance format. Cutting that off will drive those artists into obscurity, just because they’re either not independently wealthy or backed by a major record label pushing for guaranteed sales figures reaching deep into the millions.

3. Restrictions of this kind are monetarily pointless.
What people would this restrict from broadcasting? Answer, people that are running internet radio stations for free..or at least, not to make money anyway. Is anyone losing money by having any given group of songs broadcast over these stations? No. Are the artists and music publishers getting free advertising by having these songs play with full track and artist information visible in the player applications? Yes. Are these stations committing intellectual property piracy by charging for redistribution of copywrited material that they don’t own? No.. Every internet only radio station I’ve listened to has not charged or even run advertisements. They broadcast because they want to broadcast the music they like. There’s no money to be made or lost in this activity, or for that matter, the proposed restrictions I’m advising against.

4. Restrictions in the US will only cause the small/free/hobbyist stations to broadcast from other countries.
So the process of broadcasting whatever you want will just be a little more irritating, you’ll have to use a non-US server. Will that added difficulty discourage some people from setting up little stations? Sure. Will it discourage everyone? Certainly not. The people that want to continue to broadcast free of censorship will do so from anywhere outside our borders.

The very reasons I had stopped listening to airwave radio – narrow & repetitive playlists, frequent and annoying advertisements, pointless DJ talking and lack of available song/artist information – are the very reasons why I enjoy listening to Internet Radio nearly every day. Internet Radio does not suffer from those deficiencies. It’s only problems are net congestion and dependance on internet connected devices, which have nothing to do with the content being broadcast.

Currently I as a listener can call up any number of specialty or eclectic Internet Radio stations to hear music that I like and have never heard before. I hear the music and only the music. If I like something enough to want to hear it whenever I want, I (most of the time anyway) can bring up the name of the Artist and Song Title – and often the Album name as well – while the song is playing. With that information I can go out and buy it. I can also recommend internet stations to any of my friends, wherever in the world they happen to be. I think this is a wonderful way to experience new music. There is SO much music out there that most of us haven’t heard, and it is so nice to be able to hear from a more diverse selection than what appears in the corporate sponsored top 40.

I as a broadcaster enjoy being able to let others hear some of the music I love to listen to, and I also enjoy the freedom to use internet broadcasting to voice any points of view I’d like to express. Free speech, good music, broadcasting for the sake of broadcasting. Restrictions of this kind are going against our constitution, which is a very well phrased document meant to insure our various freedoms. These restrictions are based in greed. i don’t support that. Please keep these proposed restrictions from becoming law.