Radio broadcasters don't have to pay record companies to play music over the air. Webcasters were facing the possiblity of having to do just that -- and many of them were saying that the proposed royalty was unfair and ruinous.
Except that Librarian of Congress James Billington, whose business it is to set the royalty rate, rejected a proposal from an arbitration panel. He didn't say what the final rate would be, but promised a June 20 deadline.
Here's the Library of Congress official link to the whole megillah.
More cupidity from the record industry:
``Since both sides appealed the panel's determination anything is possible,'' said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America. [ed note: Where did Hilary Rosen go? Is she now so generally despised that they're not letting her out in public?] He said he does not know what decision Billington will make, but he looks forward ``to the day when artists and labels finally get paid for the use of their music.''
RIAA members, of course, are record labels, which have a perfectly terrible history of paying their artists and a mostly wonderful track record of paying themselves.
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