digitallyimported.com may shut down if ....

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Posted by LiquidX on Oct-17-2002 00:09:

digitallyimported.com may shut down if ....

The famous trance / techno / dance / eurodance internet radio may shut down if the bill is not passed through the senate of the USA as soon as next week.. this was obtained from their homepage.

As we previously told you, the US Senate still has to approve the Webcast royalty compromise for small businesses and non-profits (H.R. 5469) that passed the House a week ago. Today�s news on Page 3D of USA Today is that the bill may be stuck in the Senate, after 2 large over-the-air broadcasting groups raised objections!

The broadcasters, many of whose stations simulcast on the Web, have called for unspecified changes to the bill. Of course any Senate changes have to be sent back to the House for approval. Given that the due date for up to 4 years worth of retroactive royalty payments is this Sunday, October 20, the Senate needs to do whatever it�s going to do right away.

As was the case the last time things got bogged down, US listeners need to pick up the phone. To call your Senator�s offices find your 9-digit Zip Code here, enter the Zip Code at Contacting the Congress, and look in the top two (pink) rows under the DC Phone column for the numbers, starting 202-224-.

At each office ask to speak to the legislative aide in charge of telecom and Internet issues. The message is that the Senate needs to act *immediately* on H.R. 5469 (the Small Webcaster Amendments Act of 2002), as payments for up to 4 years worth of retroactive royalties are due this Sunday, Oct. 20.

WARNING: If this bill HR 5469 does not get passed in some shape or form, Digitally Imported will most likely be forced to shut down here in US as early as next week! So please, if you've never made a call like this before, do consider doing it this time, it's very easy and takes few minutes! They say the secret to life is showing up, so just make the call to your Senators if you are in US! Thanks in advance!

Note: There is a very misinformed article going around the web (The Register, now same article on Slash Dot) about this Bill shutting small webcasters out. This is non-sense. It is our position that the person who wrote the article doesn't know much about the issues, was quoting people out of context, and most of all, neglected to mention loads of information, that frankly, would not make this much of a story. We just wanted to let you know that this bill is NEEDED, or DI Will Shut DOWN as early as well, the 20th of this month! Shocker isn't it? So call your Senators, please!

sux pretty much, I dont know if any other radio will shut down as well.. americans... do something ?

Posted by reveal on Oct-17-2002 12:50:

why not move the server to, let's say, canada?

Posted by benfica88 on Oct-18-2002 18:26:

This sux.

Posted by jp on Oct-18-2002 18:31:

Digital Imported should move to Europe

Posted by goodnet on Oct-18-2002 20:35:

quote:
Originally posted by reveal
why not move the server to, let's say, canada?
Why? Because even if you are relaying an mp3 stream from your home to a remote server in another country, the same rules apply.
Now, if the person who runs the DI radio station MOVED to canada to operate it (very unlikely, he runs it on his own time as far as i know), that would be a different story. However, I would not be surprised if the music industry bullied canada into creating a simaler laws. It happens.

It sucks, that at least one great station, Tag's Trance Trip (www.tagstrance.com), already had to shut down because of unfair laws that forced tag to shut down the entire operation. I sincerely hope this bill gets signed, so trance will continue to stream to TAs everywhere!

there's alotta updated info on the bill here too:
www.saveinternetradio.org