Licensing Problem Silences Internet Radio Stations 100
SEWilco writes "Hundreds of Internet radio stations that use SWCast.net for services have been affected by a shutdown triggered by SoundExchange, who claim lack of payment of royalty fees. Apparently SoundExchange has a new president, and this might be a factor in acting on several years of missing payments. In the meantime, SWCast radio stations suffer after paying to legally broadcast."
Anagram (Score:5, Insightful)
Lots of words, but nothing said. (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, I don't think things bode well for SWCast members.... The post by the CEO was lots of words about his wonderful past and very little substance about addressing the take down notice by SoundExchange. The SWCast CEO failed to refute any of their claims or provide any reassurance that their service would be up soon (note that this may be on the advice of his lawyers, but he doesn't even mention that he is working with his lawyers to resolve it ASAP)
He doesn't even apologize to customers for the disruption.
A sucker born every minute (Score:5, Insightful)
In the meantime, SWCast radio stations suffer after paying to legally broadcast.
Well, I'm sorry, suckers, but that's what you get. If there's one lesson that New Media needs to get mercilessly beaten into its collective brain, it's that you do not attempt to play ball with Old Media. If anyone expected to get anything but fucked, shame on them.
Re:A sucker born every minute (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, this wouldn't have happened if there were no license fees at all, but at face value this doesn't appear to be a media industry issue. Based on Sound Exchange's post, it would appear that SWCast was a fraudulent operation, plain and simple. This is no different from a Ponzi scheme or any other fraud. People thought they were paying for a service and instead the money went into a black hole. The radio stations were stupid to sign up without checking they were in compliance, and now they should sue the crap out of SWCast.
Re:A sucker born every minute (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not about "old media", this is about knowing that the person you contract with to provide a service is actually providing you that service (in this case license rights).
Re:Anagram (Score:5, Insightful)
So swcast is the villain here, not soundexchange.
The true villain here is the US legal system, for threatening violent coercive force against those music providers who fail to pay a steep tax to a protected class of parasitic rentiers.
Re:Piracy (Score:5, Insightful)
No it is far closer to say that if you need to pay taxes and instead you pay a guy on the streetcorner that says he will take care of everything for you... well, you have nobody to blame but yourself.
At the very least some people should have checked up on what was going on. Apparently, the people paying SWCast didn't check to see that they were actually legitimate. They were not, so anyone that trusted them got screwed.
Re:A sucker born every minute (Score:4, Insightful)