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http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070626-internet-radio-day-of-silence-hushes-thousands-of-stations.html

Internet Radio "Day of Silence" hushes thousands of stations

By Jacqui Cheng | Published: June 26, 2007 - 11:51AM CT

Today is June 26, and that means that it's the Internet radio Day of
Silence. The Day of Silence was organized by Radio Internet Newsletter
publisher Kurt Hanson in order to protest against retroactive royalty
rate increases that could end up putting many Internet radio stations
out of business. The rates are due to go into effect in less than a
month, and with no significant help from Congress as of yet, Internet
broadcasters are resorting to silence to demonstrate what will happen if
the proposed increases go into effect.
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In March, the Copyright Royalty Board said that it planned to change the
method by which Internet broadcasters would pay for royalties from a
per-song to a per-listener rate. This, combined with new base fees of
$500 for each separate station that a broadcaster managed, would require
many Internet radio stations to pay crippling fees to the Copyright
Royalty Board that would essentially put them out of business.

National Public Radio attempted to get a rehearing with the CRB, arguing
that the decision was an "abuse of discretion," but their appeal was
denied less than a month later. Still, the CRB offered a small reprieve
from the threat of retroactive fees in May by extending the deadline for
retroactive rates from May 15 to July 15. A couple of weeks later,
SoundExchange tweaked its requirements so that smaller broadcasters
won't have to pay increased royalties until 2010—a decision that was
unpopular with SaveNetRadio, which argued that SoundExchange's offer
would still punish larger webcasters while ensuring that smaller ones
would never see any growth.

In response, thousands of Internet radio stations today are broadcasting
static, silence, a message explaining the Day of Silence, or are simply
not accessible at all. Yahoo! Music agreed to shut down its roughly 200
Internet broadcast stations in honor of the Day of Silence and only
offers links to savenetradio.org. Real Rhapsody displays a message on
its site when anyone tries to access its channels, urging readers to
visit SaveNetRadio as well. Pandora went so far as to take down its
entire web site to offer a message about the Day of Silence, and
Live365.com shut down some 10,000 of its Internet radio channels today
with a message on its web site asking listeners to contact their
senators and representatives about the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Smaller-name broadcasters are participating in the Day of Silence too.
LoudCity shut down 500 of its own stations today, and one of my personal
favorites, .977 Music, is broadcasting silence as well. There are no 80s
hits for me today. Noticeably absent from today's protest is popular
Internet broadcaster Last.FM, however, despite the fact that the
CBS-owned broadcaster will be required to pay the same fees as the others.

"This 'Day of Silence' is an encore of a successful media event that
small webcasters organized on May 1, 2002 in response to a similarly
royalty rate ruling from a Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP)
five years ago," wrote Hanson on his web site. "That event garnered
national attention and was subsequently followed by a rate cut by the
Librarian of Congress and the passage of the Small Webcaster Settlement
Act for the period 1998-2005."

He and other broadcasters hope that the outcome of today's Day of
Silence will be just as favorable. The Internet Radio Equality Act was
introduced to both the Senate and the House earlier this year, which
would overturn the CRB's royalty hikes and instead introduce a more
palatable rate of 7.5 percent of total revenues. However, neither entity
has yet to vote on the legislation, leaving Internet broadcasters
anxious as the July 15 deadline looms.