A bill to protect grassroots Internet radio has been offered before Congress.
The Internet Radio Fairness Act would exempt webcasters with less than $6 million in annual revenues from the additional RIAA royalty and from future royalty requirements.
The webcasters already pay performance fees to ASCAP, the BMI and the European equivalent, but the RIAA has sought to impose an additional burden backdated to 1998, - not imposed on US radio stations and onerous reporting requirements - and a sympathetic Library of Congress ruling in June obliged many smaller Netcasters close down.
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