I’ve been more or less following the net radio story recently. Last Friday, Xeni at BoingBoing reported a breakthrough in the negotiations. There’s been a lot of development over the past few days and I’m not going to attempt to summarize. I’m sure the sunday papers have done a fine job.

From my view it looks like Soundexchange lobbyists gambled that they could knock out net radio with one blow. They proposed a deal that would effectively buy off a chunk of the internet. Many thousands of members of the internet using public were unhappy about the proposed deal; they phoned and emailed their congressional representatives. “Oppose this deal” they said. Congress stepped in on behalf of public opinion. Soundexchange’s previous terms are off the table.

Evidence of pretty good collaboration between radio and net radio, newspapers and blogs, politicians and public opinion.

PS: If you want free indie rock go here.

[tags]Save Net Radio, Soundexchange[/tags]