Obama doesn't care about internet radio.

"Dear ****:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Copyright Royalty Board’s rate increase decision and its effect on small webcasters. I appreciate hearing your thoughts on this issue.

The royalty rate for webcasters has proven to be a controversial subject, with small webcasters hoping to become viable, competitive alternatives to large commercial radio stations. As you point out, many of these small webcasters offer a variety of music unavailable to a wide audience through other sources.

Regulations set by the enactment of the Small Webcasters Settlement Act of 2002, which favored small webcasters, recently expired and the regulations had to be revisited. As you know, in March, 2007, the Copyright Royalty Board issued its decision, which establishes new rates for commercial and noncommercial webcasters. The Board considered the comments of small commercial webcasters, who sought continuation of a fee based solely according to revenue. Ultimately, the Board rejected this benefit for small webcasters, opting instead for a flat-rate fee and a per song per listener basis. When making this decision, the Board cited the difficulty of distinguishing small and large commercial webcasters, as well as their own lack of statutory authority to carve out royalty rate niches for the emergent business models promoted by small commercial webcasters.

The Board’s decision can be revised through legislative action, and it is likely that the Senate will examine this issue. I will certainly keep your thoughts in mind when it does.

Again, thank you for raising this issue with me. Please stay in touch.

Sincerely,

Barack Obama
United States Senator


P.S. Our system does not allow direct response to this email. However, if you would like to contact me again, please use the form on the website: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/

Stay up to date with Barack's work in the Senate and on issues of importance to Illinois. Subscribe to the weekly podcast here: http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/";

>:(

tl;dr: "We're going to raise the royalty fees to a ridiculous amount but we will still pretend to care about small webcasters to help preserve our self-image. Vote for me, I'm black lol"

Who are the ones with the financial incentive here?

1) If the copyright holders want to change the fee structure, that is their right to do, excluding any contractual agreements or state and local laws that prohibit it.

2) Said changes in the fee structure should not be retroactive (which seems to be part of the problem here). If there wasn't any contractual agreement stating that they could be charged fees retroactively, the it seems ridiculous to expect anyone to pay retroactive fees that weren't agreed on. Was there an agreement to pay retroactive fees? If there was such an agreement, balls for the broadcasters that signed it!

3) If the broadcasters aren't financially able to do business with the copyright holders (fees too large for a decent profit to be made), then the broadcasters need to find new copyright holders to do business with. Or "gasp", play public domain music and pay no fees at all.

4) Do you get paid to write to your congressman to cry about how your favorite radio station will go out of business? Does the radio station pay you to listen to their broadcast? No? Then what is the incentive for you to help to bail them out? I can understand if you just don't want your favorite radio station go out of business (whatever will you listen to then?). But the people that get really militant about the broadcasters "rights" seem a bit odd to me. What is it that you hope to gain? The market will determine who makes the money here. If you hate the copyright holders so much and want to see them backfire, well, why not just quit listening to their shit in the first place? The only hold they have over you and your broadcasters is that you want to listen to their music.