Gaydar Radio Foiled in UK?
Hey does anyone listen to Gaydar Radio? I haven't in about a month, and tried today. There was this message when I attempted to connect:
Due to a change in United Kingdom licensing laws all Internet radio stations
now have to pay to broadcast outside the UK. This effectively means that GaydarRadio will either have to stop broiadcasting outside the UK or charge a subscription fee. We have decided to enter the subscription route rather than cut the station off to out loyal audiences outside the UK.
Sounds to me like the 1920s-era tax and regulation system in Britain, organized to fund Auntie is interfereing with a new technology with a global reach.
Steve
Aside - Music Industry Sues XM Radio
... on the subject of the music industry battling with innovation....
Music Industry Sues XM Over Replay Device
Wall Street Journal May 17, 2006
A new music-industry lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. has brought to a boil a simmering debate over satellite-radio devices that blur the distinction between listening to a song and owning it.
The battle revolves around a new XM device called the Inno, a portable satellite radio made by Pioneer Corp. that allows purchasers to store individual songs that they hear on XM and fashion them into playlists, much like an iPod. Using the Inno, a listener hearing a song he wants to keep can simply punch a button and record it -- and the track will be captured from the beginning of the song. The Inno user can then arrange the songs on the unit's memory any way he likes.
The advent of such devices has irked the recording industry, which believes that they allow users to capture music they hear on the radio and treat it as if they owned it. To stop that, members of the Recording Industry Association of America filed suit in federal court in the Southern District of New York yesterday, charging XM with copyright infringement; unauthorized digital delivery; reproduction infringement; and unfair competition. The RIAA is also seeking damages that include $150,000 for each infringement -- in other words, every time a song was recorded. With the suit, the music industry is signaling that there are limits to how much it is willing to tolerate devices that record music from the radio, particularly when it comes to the device's ability to sort songs.
The suit underscores how technology creates new problems for copyright holders, who are trying to fight off widespread music piracy, even as it creates new business opportunities. The outcome of the case could affect how storage works on future digital radio sets or emerging distribution services.
The issue stems from the type of payment, known as performance rights fees, that XM pays the music industry for the right to broadcast songs. Those fees are much lower than the payments the industry would get if XM cut a deal to sell the songs. XM has contended the stored songs aren't true sales, in part because they stay on the radio only as long as the owner remains a subscriber to XM, and can't be moved, say onto a computer or another music device.
Meanwhile, legislation known as the "Perform Act" is making its way through the House and the Senate. The backers aim to curb the recording abilities of satellite radios and want higher fees for the music industry.
