ACUM, the Israeli equivalent to the RIAA, which is representing in Israel all artists, Israeli or international, decided to claim a fee from webcasting stations. Cureently internet-only stations pay a constant rate fee to ACUM, which doesn’t depend on their member’s usage of the station, but on the number of different “channels”, or playlists, provided by the station. Radio stations which broadcast wirelessly and also over the internet currently don’t pay for broadcastiong over the web, but under ACUM’s new terms, they would have to. Although ACUM didn’t set the price yet, the new model would probably cost much more to the webcasting stations than the current one.
There are only 3 internet-only music stations today, and there are also a few “normal” wireless radio-stations which also broadcast through the web. The editor of one of the 3 internet-only stations, WFM, says that ACUM understands that the internet-only stations in Israel are already in troubles, and that if they raise the fee, they would make them all fall.
A representative of “normal” radio stations which also broadcast over the web said that the radio stations in Israel won’t agree to pay extra fees in order to broadcast over the web, and would fight over this issue in court if nessecary.
A full article over this issue (in Hebrew… sorry) is available at TheMarker.com.
And on this note, I’m sick of the RIAA (or ACUM and other country-specific associations) and MPAA’s stupid behavior (yes, stupid – researches show that free music over the internet only encourages sellings) – it is time to stand up for our rights and save those remaining p2p applications and web-stations. And I don’t beleive that the way to do that is to boycott RIAA and not buy CDs – I think we should buy CDs which contain many songs we found on p2p networks, and get artists support, to show the authorities we are willing to play fair, but still have access to music over the internet, and for free.
I have many ideas within me, and I plan to open a website soon to help us organize. I really think it’s time such a thing should be done. The website will be designed in a way that it would let its members to decide how to act against the RIAA and MPAA. I would post here in Zeropaid when the website is up. If anyone is looking for more information, or is willing to help, please post here or e-mail me at:
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