A very worried listener.

[axess]

Hey guys. Got this in the post today from some third rate internet station broadcaster I used before I found you guys.

"The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) recently denied webcasters' requests for a rehearing on its ruling of unfairly high new royalty rates -- a stunning 300 to 1200 percent increase -- for Internet radio for period 2006-2010.

Internet radio is singled out from all other radio, burdened with fees not paid by AM or FM stations, and at rates at least 3-4 times paid by satellite and cable radio. The ruling even included absurd minimum of $500 per station per year to penalize the smallest webcasters with the highest rates.

Should this ruling stand, many of your favorite stations will be silenced."

Will this affect you guys in anyway? Or because you are based in Canada do you escape it? Also what is happening with the station? Scozart is on hiatus and Dana has also gone (hopefully to return very soon). Will other shows take their place? I have only recently found you guys and all this great intelligent music and I don't wanna do without any of you.

Brad of aXess.

[mikebo]

The Copyright Royalty Board are bureaucrats attached to the U.S. Library of Congress which has no authority at all outside the U.S.A. 

[Grrrl]

Hey Mikebo, doesn't this make us kinda Canadian anyway?  Eh?

[Frans]

If this insane ruling stands in the US, Canada will probably not be far behind...

[Shawn]

That's definitely a concern.