For my fellow US customers... last Thursday, US Senators Dianne Feinstein [D,CA], Lamar Alexander [R,TN], Joe Biden [D,DE] , and Lindsey Graham [R,SC] re-introduced a bill called the "PERFORM Act of 2007" [S.256] that, in the opinion of the EFF, would require all webcasters to use DRM with their music streams.
This seems to me very likely to 1) shut down a large number of webcasts 2) make the others incompatible with the relatively DRM-free Squeezebox and Transporter devices 3) reduce the Internet "airplay" that artists get, therefore reducing the SoundExchange royalties that they would have earned The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee. It's worth noting that the bill's four co-sponsors represent both the Democratic and Republican parties, and all sit on the Judiciary Committee, representing one fifth of the committee's members. EFF Alert: https://secure.eff.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=221 Here's the new/current judiciary committee roster -- if your state is represented, please seriously consider placing a call or sending an email. Patrick J. Leahy CHAIRMAN, D-VERMONT Edward M. Kennedy D-MASSACHUSETTS Arlen Specter RANKING MEMBER, R-PENNSYLVANIA Joseph R. Biden, Jr. D-DELAWARE Orrin G. Hatch R-UTAH Herbert Kohl D-WISCONSIN Charles E. Grassley R-IOWA Dianne Feinstein D-CALIFORNIA Jon Kyl R-ARIZONA Russell D. Feingold D-WISCONSIN Jeff Sessions R-ALABAMA Charles E. Schumer D-NEW YORK Lindsey Graham R-SOUTH CAROLINA Richard J. Durbin D-ILLINOIS John Cornyn R-TEXAS Benjamin L. Cardin D-MARYLAND Sam Brownback R-KANSAS Sheldon Whitehouse D-RHODE ISLAND Tom Coburn R-OKLAHOMA -- peterw ------------------------------------------------------------------------ peterw's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2107 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31869 _______________________________________________ discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
