Tuesday marked a day of silence for web radio broadcasters as they oppose a 300 to 1,200 per cent license fee hike from the US Copyright Royalty Board.

Although the fees are set by a government body, they would only get the idea from a strong lobby group such as the RIAA. As the dinosaurs from the record labels attempt to make the online world adjust to its 20th century thinking, it is charging online broadcasters a fee per station. But that doesn't work very well for broadcasters who allow users to create their own stations, such as Pandora.

26 Jun 2007

To further demonstrate the industry's blind appetite for revenues, online broadcasters will be charged more than traditional radio broadcasters. It should a blind disregard of the economics: the fact that more people are still listening to traditional radio, and that those stations also are making more money than their online counterparts.

The recoding industry's lobby must be either clueless about the online music market or is knowingly sabotaging internet stations. Either way, this has monopoly power written all over it. Where is justice when you need it?