Music's Day of Silence

Three days ago, the only sound being broadcast over radio stations across the Web was the faint hum of static. June 26 marked a day of protest, the Day of Silence.

Organized by Radio and Internet Newsletter Publisher Kurt Hanson, the protest was aimed at a new ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), a part of the Library of Congress. This ruling changes how internet broadcasters pay for royalties from a per-song to a per-listener rate and raises base fees for each station that a broadcaster manages. These high fees threaten to put many internet radio stations out of business.

Hence, stations broadcast the Day of Silence to illustrate what could happen when the ruling goes into effect.

Internet radio has already been suffering under the PERFORM (Platform Equality and Remedies for Rights Holders in Music) Act of 2006. The law requires satellite, cable and internet broadcasters to stream music only in formats that use DRM (Digital Rights Management) techology, designed to prevent music theft.

Critics have been decrying the law as unfair. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), webcasters that want to transmit major label music are entitled to do so under the Copyright Act. As long as they follow the rules and pay a royalty, webcasters can play whatever music they like, using whatever streaming format they like.

The Copyright Act forbids webcasters from helping their listeners record webcasts, and requires them to use DRM only if the webcast format includes DRM.

In order to restrict webcast recording, the PERFORM Act forces internet stations to use DRM-friendly file formats instead of letting them choose their own.

According to the EFF, it's the non-DRM formats that have allowed innovative technologies like Streamripper and RadioLover to evolve to meet the home recording demands of music fans. Most DRM formats also involve the payment of licensing fees, and many internet radio stations have already felt the financial strain of trying to rework their technologies.

"For everyone else, we'll get government-mandated technology decisions in radio and on the Web. We'll get cheap, open source innovation locked out of media devices," said Daniel O'Brien, EFF activism coordinator.

To put it plainly, by trying to protect music from piracy, the PERFORM Act restricts the format webcasters and radio stations use, which could possibly lead to more expensive streaming and less product available to the public.

However, according to a news release by Senator Feinstein (D-Cal.), who co-sponsored the bill, the PERFORM Act would create rate parity in that all cable, satellite and internet companies would be subject to the same rates, and it would establish content protection, distinguishing between the right to perform and the right to distribute. For example, it would be allowable for a listener to automatically record a station from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., but he would not be allowed to record songs only by a certain artist.

Senator Feinstein also believes that the new, DRM-supporting form of music delivery system would be beneficial for both consumers and record companies.

Although Tech's Office of Legal Affairs has made no comment regarding the PERFORM Act, students around campus have agreed that decreasing music streaming or making it more expensive would not be a good idea.

"If I can't find songs to download, I'd always find them streaming online, so I can check them out whenever I want to. If online streaming weren't available or if I had to pay to listen to music online, I would rather choose to not stream," said Alice Chan, a second-year Biomedical Engineering major.

Other students have said that although they don't like the idea of expensive online streaming, they would pay the price for music if need be.

"As a poor college student, of course I'd want to go the free way. But if I'm not given the option of free streaming, I guess I have to pay if I want to listen to music. It's like if you can't get your hands on free new movies, then you'd have to go to the theater," said Dina Dunn, a second-year Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering major.

However, if the current CRB ruling holds, there may not be any streaming music available online. The ruling is set to go into effect in less than a month, July 15. Another bill, the Internet Radio Equality Act, was introduced earlier this year in an effort to overturn the CRB's royalty hikes, but Congress has yet to vote on it.

If nothing changes, there may be many more days of silence ahead for those who love internet radio.