

RIAA, SoundExchange, and StationRipper - Recent news (wasn't expecting this to be digg'able, but I'll go with it) Some of you have been asking me about what's going to happen to StationRipper, in light of the recent news about the massive internet radio royalty increase, and about the "Compromise" that SoundExchange recently put forth (forcing stations to come up with ways to prevent recording). While there's a lot of uncertainty about where this is all heading, I'd like to try to at least make a stab at answer the most common questions: No, I have not been contacted by the RIAA or anyone involved with that organization. As far as I know, in the US StationRipper is still considered legal under fair use. I doubt I will be contacted - internet radio ripping has been around for a long time now, and as far as I know, no legal issues have come about beyond some initial questions when the DMCA was being created. I am guessing the music industry knows it's legal, so is going to try to kill if off by killing off all internet radio that they don't directly control.

All of this is US-based. I don't anticipate it will effect non-us stations for some time, if at all. StationRipper will continue to be able to record Shoutcast stations that broadcast as they do today. I don't have any plans to change that.



I'm personally guessing that if the insane royalty increases take place, most US stations will shut down - which should make it more profitable for non-us stations... so I expect to see MORE of those. And I'd guess a higher % (if any) of those won't pay any fees to the RIAA, which should be lots of fun for the music industry (always "smart" to do things to reduce profit! Go RIAA!!!).

How does the latest compromise that SoundExchange put forward effect StationRipper? First off, they specifically said "work to stop users from engaging in 'streamripping'". M any are interpreting this to mean DRM. It MAY just mean that they want stations to make it harder to record their streams(games with song name change, cross-fading, et al). But this was already something that they have been pushing for some time now, and most stations ignore it (which I personally thing they should - it lessens the experience of users that listen to their stations).



If they force DRM, then I'm not sure what will happen - it seems like that would take away peoples fair-use of music. I'd think it also kill off a lot of (freely available) broadcasting technologies, and I would expect it would make it a bit tougher for people to start stations (I'm not a broadcaster so am not 100% sure of this, but starting a Shoutcast stations is EASY).

StationRipper has been able to record Last.fm for some time now. If Last.fm shuts down because of the massive fees, then StationRipper won't be able to record them any more (obviously). They're one of the better "stations" out there, so I can only hope this doesn't happen. Or maybe they'll just move off shore and it will be a non-issue.



If this should happen, and all you record is Last.fm, I'll do a 30 day refund for those that ask for it. I imagine that a lot of people do both Shoutcast and Last.fm, so I'd ask that if you still use the software for Shoutcast, that you don't ask for a refund - we make just enough to cover domain costs + the iPod prize + expenses most month, so I'd appreciate not getting a flood of refunds :)

What happens if nothing can be recorded anymore? While I think this is very unlikely in the next few years as all of this is us-specific - same as #4, 30 day refund if we don't figure out a way to fix it. But if this happens, there will likely be a new version of StationRipper that records what the soundcard is playing. Or that you can hook a mic up to your machine and StationRipper auto-breaks songs up based on that. Or something. Trying to prevent recording what eventually HAS to be analog is kinda pointless in the long run... As someone who loves music, buys a ton of it, and listens to internet radio most of the day, the direction the music industry has been taking the last few years is very disturbing. I'm with them on massive sharing via P2P, but they seem to be at the point where they want to charge us (a lot) for every time we hear a song. From everything from killing internet radio by exorbitant fees to trying to stamp out the used CD market to suing 90 year old grandmothers that have never used a computer, they have been acting like a bunch of thugs the last few years (The RIAA and recording companies - not the musicians; most seem to hate the RIAA as much as the rest of us) For legal internet radio stations, they are already making a LOT of money via the fees they already pay. Increasing those fees to the point where stations can't make money, or even cover the fees, is crazy. And trying to restrict people from being able to time-shit radio is also pointless.



Using software like StationRipper is a great way to FIND new music to BUY. While you may get a ton of MP3's after using it, they already have cross-fading, DJ overlays, some aren't high bit stream, etc. I personally think all of that actually helps drive new sales of music. 'Course a lot of it is unsigned stuff from places the RIAA doesn't control... which may be a lot of what's going on here.



I wish the RIAA would focus more on trying to make money off the way people want to use their product, instead of trying to come up with new ways that restrict how people use those products. Anyway, I encourage everyone to go over to SaveNetRadio.org and SaveOurInternetRadio.com and see what's going on. If enough people get upset about this (sign the petition, call your congress members, etc) then we might still be listening to US internet radio a year from now. As always, if you have any questions, issues, or comments, feel free to ask! And give the latest version of StationRipper a try - the Last.fm recording is working MUCH better! Thanks

-Greg 7/16/07