Repeal Internet Radio Streaming Rates

Two bills now pending in Congress would roll back the controversial decision of the Copyright Royalty Board which is scheduled to take effect on July 15th. If those bills are delayed or defeated, public radio broadcasters that stream on the internet will experience substantial increases for music royalties -- some may be forced off the internet.

This is because the new rates set by the Board will far exceed the already inflated rates set by a previous rate setting case in 2001; the new rates rapidly escalate until 2010, when they will reach 150\% higher than the extreme pre-2006 rates that are now paid by commercial webcasters. Worse, public radio non- commercial educational webcasters will have to pay these same gargantuan commercial rates -- there is no traditional non-profit rate as there was prior to this ruling. Even more egregious, the new rates would be retroactive to January 2006!

The fine print of the Board's ruling requires that when a public radio broadcaster exceeds a minuscule average of just 221 listeners, they get thrown into the exorbitant commercial for- profit rate structure! This means that just about any public radio station that is music-intensive or simply is popular on the internet could be quickly saddled with the heavy commercial rate fee structure! Public radio is being penalized if it serves a larger audience.

We, the Undersigned, humbly request that such exorbitant and unnecessary internet radio streaming rates be lowered.