That Damned Bill...
Thank God that sell-out got canned.
To quote from The Register -
"The bill was originally intended to grant 'casters a six month stay on performance royalties, but with seven minutes to go before the House voted last week, it was a replaced with an RIAA-negotiated settlement. That passed unanimously, but anger spread last week after many webcasters realized this did nothing for retrospective royalties owing since 1998, and would put many educational, and non profit webcasters out of business.
Even some of those involved in the breakaway team that struck the RIAA deal have since walked away from HR.5469, leaving a small number of casters advocating the increasingly forlorn measure.
One of those involved in the original negotiations, country musician and broadcaster Mike Hays, told us:-
"The Judiciary staff only had the picture from the RIAA and a very small number of webcasters for trying to save their businesses. I can't blame them for trying to save their businesses. But there were 5 or 6 webcasters there who could save their asses, and they went for it."
Hays walked out of the negotiations. "
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