I agree with Toby and Avian here, that this must be curbed as much as possible. However, as one with a degree in mass media communication, and having worked in radio for five years and cable tv for one, I feel it is pertinent that I make one clarification...
Avian:
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Internet radio is a broadcast, like any other broadcast.
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and again, Toby:
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Webcasting is merely a new form of broadcasting using the Internet as a transmitter rather than a tower as in radio, or satellite dishes as in television.
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Not technically so. BROADcasting and WEBcasting are "technically" speaking and "legally" speaking two entirely different things. Why? Two reasons:
1. A little word we call intrusiveness.
Take for example, broadcast TV versus Cable TV. Television is broadcast. Cable is not. The difference is the nature of the medium. Waves come through your walls, whether you want them to or not. If you own a tv, you get certain BROADCAST stations, for free, but you don't get others. This is a BIG legal difference. Because of the intrusiveness of TV, there are certain things you cannot do on TV, such as have blatant sexual scenes. Secondly, there are physically a limited number of available signals out there, and must be shared between TV video, TV audio, radio, police, ambulance, fire fighters, and cbs. So, since there are only so many, they belong to the public. No one can OWN a signal. You get a license to broadcast, and you must serve public interests, ie. public service announcements, local news and weather, etc. Cable doesn't have to do this. Why? Cable stations are not a public commodity. Anyone can have one (if they have enough money). Also, cable can do certain things broadcast TV cannot. You can have playboy channel, unedited gory movies with all the language. If someone complains, guess what? THEY SIGNED A CONTRACT, agreeing to let cable come into their home, therefore the medium is NOT PERVASIVE. See the difference? Cable never does public service. You LET cable come into your home. You HAVE broadcast come into your home. If you have a tv set, you get broadcast whether you want it or not. If you have a tv set, you have to agree to get cable (and satellite, etc.)
Move it over to radio now. Broadcast radio airwaves are public commodities, so the ones with licenses to use them must meet public service requirements and report to the FCC that they've done so. Webcasters do not, because the internet is not a public owned commodity. Therefore, webcasters are not broadcasters. They are webcasters. If I own a radio receiver, I get all kinds of programming that comes through my walls. If I were to turn on a random station and here a porno production with screaming orgasms, there would be a problem. What if it was a child? IE, you can't to that on radio. On cable, yes, you agree to it, but not radio. This is the same reason that porn can come it through your computer. You SIGN a contract with AOL or whoever, and they are not responsible for conduct. In other words, YOU AGREE TO HAVE WEB RADIO STATIONS COME INTO YOUR HOME, but you do not agree to have broadcast radio come in. If you don't want internet radio, you don't have to have it. You can have a computer and never listen to it. On the other hand, webcasters, just like cable, can broadcast anything they want. I heard a song here on AM that had a f-bomb in it. Not on broadcast radio.
2. Broadcasting, by its nature, and its name, is broad. You cast a wide signal to as many people as you can, and hope you pull in listenters. Yes, you target and audience, but you want to make that audience as broad as you can, in your niche (niche is a radio/tv term meaning the demographic you are trying to reach with a given program (age, gender, socio-economic status, race)). However, once you hit cable and webcasting, you get what we call NARROWcasting. This is when you define your niche so narrowly that you go right at them and nothing else. AuralMoon narrowcasts. It has less than 500 listeners. Another example of narrowcasting is something like Lexx on the SciFi network. That show is aimed at 25-49 males, who are sci-fi/computer geeks, who have a fetish for sci-fi babes like Seven of Nine. That's a lot of people, but it is WAY more narrow than the target audience for a show like Friends. Lexx succeeds on cable, but would tank on broadcast. Likewise, AM succeeds as webcasting, but would die on broadcast. It would be very difficult to attract advertisers because of the smaller audience.
In conclusion, I'm not trying to bew a cad, I'm just pointing out that technically, webcast and broadcast are two different things, so legally, the laws that apply to broadcast DO NOT APPLY TO WEBCAST, that's why the RIAA can screw 'em, and the FCC can't really stop 'em. So when Toby says that they don't make broadcast do so-and-so, that won't wash in court.
I can't believe I've retained that much information since I had Communication Law. Dr. Fortenberry kicked my butt in that class.
Kyle Thompson, Yesspaz.