Webcasters to protest higher royalties

SANTA MONICA, Calif., June 21 (UPI) -- Webcasters across the United States plan to participate in a "Day of Silence" Tuesday to protest higher music royalties for Internet radio.

Among the protesters is KCRW-FM in Santa Monica, Calif., National Public Radio's flagship station for Southern California. KCRW said in a news release it would shut down regular programming on all three of its Webstreams to protest higher royalties established by the Copyright Royalty Board in March.

KCRW officials said the station will produce a one-hour program, "D-Day for Webcasters," featuring Pandora, Live365, Yahoo, AccuRadio, SomaFM, indie Webcaster Bagel Radio and Washington public radio WAMU, among others. They will join host Ruth Seymour, KCRW's general manager, to discuss the new rates and their affect on stations' ability to stream and to serve audiences online.

In the U.S. Congress, the Internet Radio Equality Act enjoys bipartisan support in the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. In addition, Webcasters have filed appeals and a request for a stay of the rate schedule with the U.S. District Court in Washington.