Internet radio providers could pay millions

As hopefully you’ve noticed, on the banner at the top of my blog, we’re still waiting/hoping and fighting for our rights to broadcast music on OrangeNoiseRadio. New rules could force Webcasters to pay higher royalty fees and additional administration fees – fees that are much greater than those paid by satellite and terrestrial radio counterparts.
RealNetworks, Yahoo, Pandora and our hosting company, Live365 have told Congress that the new administration fees could cost $1 billion a year. That’s a lot of money going to waste if you ask me.
From CNet:

Here’s how they say they derived that figure: When the CRB decided earlier this year to change the rules for Internet broadcasters, it also decided to levy a $500 minimum annual fee per Internet radio “channel.” SoundExchange, the non-profit music industry entity that collects the royalty and other fees on behalf of record labels, says that minimum payment is supposed to cover administrative costs.
But since some of the larger Internet radio services potentially offer their listeners hundreds of thousands of unique “channels” (RealNetworks’ Rhapsody offered more than 400,000 in 2006 alone, according to a company spokesman), the companies view the ruling as forcing them to multiply that mandatory minimum payment accordingly (for Real, that would amount to $200 million).
Such an amount would far outpace the $20 million in total royalty fees collected by SoundExchange from the Internet radio industry last year, the CEOs note in their letter. And besides, it’s not even clear that those payments would go to artists, as royalty payments do, the companies argue.

So we have until July 15 to hopefully save Net Radio.
What can you do?
Visit SaveNetRadio.org to get informed and to send letters and/or call your congressional leaders and get them to back and co-sponsor The Internet Radio Equality Act, H.R. 2060, and S. 1353.
If you’re in the Waxahachie area, Joe Barton is your representative. You can call his Washington office at: (202) 225-2002 or send an email via his website: http://joebarton.house.gov.
Also, anywhere in Texas, our U.S. Senators are Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn.
Call Kay Bailey at: (202) 224-5922 or contact her via her website: http://www.hutchison.senate.gov.
Call John Cornyn at: (202) 224-2934 or via his website at: http://cornyn.senate.gov.
Your help is greatly appreciated!

The times are a changin’

More from the DMN (via The Times of London):

The Times of London reports that the second most popular name for baby boys in Britain (after Jack) is Muhammad.
The name is likely to be No. 1 by next year.
In official lists, the paper reports, no one variant of the name is that high in popularity. But when all 14 possible spellings are added together, Muhammad (or Mohammed or Muhamad or … you get the idea) soars.
“Overall, Muslims account for 3 per cent of the British population, about 1.5 million people,” The Times reported. “However, the Muslim birthrate is roughly three times higher than the non-Muslim one.”
In Arabic, Muhammad means “one who is praiseworthy.”

Maybe I’m missing something here, but it’s wrong to make a cartoon with Muhammad because it’s irreverent, but it’s OK to name your kid after him? I guess different cultures see irreverence as different things.

Jump up jump up and get down

I found a fun video that gives an interesting twist on the jump photos Laurie and I have tried as of late…

We may have to bust out our video camera as well and see what we can come up with. I have a feeling it might make some fun countdown videos for church.
The website indymogul.com has lots of cool tips for creating your own movie FX for cheap. Where were all these great sights, computer editing and YouTube when we were growing up. We could have had a blast for sure with all our homemade movies.

Creative public wi-fi

CNet writes about some creative solutions Smalltown, USA may need to take advantage of to bring public Wi-Fi to town.

…while thousands of towns are interested in developing municipal networks, few vendors are willing to take on small projects.
“I think towns are putting out RFPs faster than the industry can respond. I mean, there are several thousand cities pursuing this; there are only so many vendors pursuing smaller cities,” Mitch Gorsen, vice president at MultiState Associates, said in an interview…
EarthLink and AT&T in a panel at MuniWireless New England here on Tuesday said that population density is a factor when they consider taking on a project. As businesses, they want to see a return on their investment through things like subscription services or advertising revenue, depending on the business model.

Read more at CNet

Huckabee on evolution

Mike Huckabee on Evolution and the GOP Debate 6/5/2007

Gov. Huckabee gives a clear answer to his belief in creation during a CNN debate.
He admits he doesn’t know whether it was a literal six days or a longer period of time but he does believe, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
A great answer from a Presidential candidate.
I’m really hoping he and Obama can move to the front of their parties and win their nominations.