Re: [ARSCLIST] Urgent Message From SaveNetRadio

[Bob Olhsson <olh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
>From Dismuke: "...
If such an organization existed - along with any other
organization that copyright holders might want to form
to charge something more than free but less than the
utterly absurd and above market rate that
RIAA/SoundExchange charges - then I would have no
problem with any statutory rates being set VERY high."


Reading this, I think you must have a fundamental misunderstanding of what a
statutory rate is. It is a rate that webcasters only have to pay when they
fail to come to an agreement with an artist or group of artists and insist
on playing their music without having an agreement. The law clearly prefers
that everybody negotiate rates that they find  mutually beneficial. The
statutory rate is the default rate for when people can't come to an
agreement. The new one was set by arbitration ONLY because the so-called
representative of the webcasters (it's now clear to me that they don't
represent you) refused to sit down in good faith and negotiate either a new
compulsory rate or new negotiated rates. They are finally working through
the negotiated rates and, precisely as I said it wouldn't, the sky did not
fall.

The folks who claim to be representing you, the DIMA, ARE precisely who
created all of this. We are totally on the same page that there ought to be
no government intervention. We are probably on the same page about most of
these issues. I hope you can let go of your blind hatred for the RIAA long
enough to understand that some things the RIAA opposes could easily be
something you would also oppose and some things the RIAA supports could be
something you would want to support. You got furious when I pointed this out
yet if you look into the facts, you'll find out the broad strokes of what
I'm saying are true. I'm not an expert but I've read SoundExchange's side of
the story and I've seen nothing from the other side that refutes the facts
they lay out. Instead they have put out reams of disinformation that
compares statutory rate apples to negotiated rate oranges.

This stuff isn't as black and white as the pundits would have people believe
and both artists and truly creative radio producers are about to get royally
screwed by big internet and technology interests who are both larger and
more monopolistic, thanks to patents, than the big record labels. 
	

Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http://www.hyperback.com