The Sound of (Expensive) Silence

This is important, people.

Fantastic and necessary sites such as Pandora, SoMa FM and others are in dire peril of being shut down due to those greedy bastards at the RIAA and other music industry "advocates" (read: thugs). Instead of finding a reasonable way for small internet broadcasters to pay for broadcasting songs, these modern-day protection gangsters are trying to make them pay through the nose.

Bandwidth ain't cheap, and those costs alone can close down some smaller stations. But asking for 0.19 cents per song per listener is piracy on the airwaves. Thousands of listeners can shut it all down; millions will make it go away forever. Why should terrestrial, big-ticket, commercial radio stations be the only ones to play music, and bad music at that? The best music is being made available via small 'net broadcasters who care about their listeners and won't change formats to make a dollar, betraying their audience in the process.

We could get into a discussion on the statute of limitations for copyrights, et al, but I shan't. Read the clear article from The New York Times and see what the fuss is about.