From The Spectator Online: "The DMCA has been interpreted to mandate that the recording industry and webcasters work to establish a fee that anyone could pay to get into Webcasting and remain compliant with this new copyright royalty, instead of negotiating with myriad different labels independently for royalty rates -- thereby creating a statutory licensing fee.

"After two years of unsuccessful squabbling, the U.S. Copyright Office stepped in and set up a panel to arbitrate the royalty negotiation (which, apparently, the Copyright Office does all the time for various copyright squabbles). The Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel sought interested parties to present evidence and testimony in order to decide a fair rate -- with even more squabbling about who could participate.

"Many operators from local college stations were either unaware of this legislation until quite recently or were excluded from the arbitration proceedings that came out of it.

"Independent classical station WCPE tried to participate in the CARP proceedings but was excluded, says Deborah Proctor, WCPE station manager. In January 2001 the Copyright Office indicated that small entities would be allowed to file briefs instead of committing to fully participate in the proceedings -- a costly endeavor in terms of legal counsel. WCPE got on the list and readied themselves to file, Proctor says, only to be rejected from participation by the Recording Industry Association of America, an enormous trade group representing the four or five major record labels in America.

"'They essentially got us kicked off the list,' Proctor says. 'We wanted to file. We wanted to represent ourselves. But in order to do it, all of the parties involved had to say OK.' Of the five-page list, Proctor says, only RIAA said no, insisting that all parties participate fully. With an estimated cost ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 for full participation (not just filing briefs), says Proctor, 'we just couldn't afford the six-figure bill.'

"Ultimately, the parties to the proceedings consisted of a powerful mix of artist unions and industry trade associations, including the RIAA, on one side, and 27 large and small Webcasters and simulcasters, including Clear ChannelCommunications, MTVi Group and National Public Radio, on the other side..."

Read the entire Spectator article from April 10 here.

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From Business 2.0: "Across most of Hawaii, DSLs and cable modems are rumors, leaving dial-up Web access -- to Bill Wiecking, suffocatingly limited -- as the only alternative. Yet here among the volcanoes, Wiecking is firing off e-mails and pulling in National Public Radio over the Net at lightning speed on the laptop in his truck...

"His info fixes are made possible by a do-it-yourself wireless network he has pieced together to cover more than 300 square miles of the Big Island...

"Wiecking's technological secret is a wireless standard called 802.11b, more felicitously known as Wi-Fi (for 'wireless fidelity'). Conventional 802.11 networks have a range of no more than 300 feet, but by using a hodgepodge of cheap amplifiers, antennas, and other gear, Wiecking has been able to stoke up the range of some of his base stations to more than 26 miles.

"Now people all over the island are tapping into Wiecking's wireless links, surfing the Web at speeds as much as 100 times greater than standard modems permit. High school teachers use the network to leapfrog a plodding state effort to wire schools. Wildlife regulators use it to track poachers. And it's all free. Wiecking has built his network through a coalition of educators, researchers, and nonprofit organizations; with the right equipment and passwords, anyone who wants to tap in can do so, at no charge...

"A quietly growing legion of wireless guerrillas is using 802.11 -- and components ranging from Pringles cans to wire-wrapped plastic tubing -- to set up wireless networks in at least 40 US cities, from Seattle to New York to Austin, and many more cities overseas. The dream is to create enough overlapping networks so that wherever you go, you can open a laptop equipped with an 802.11 antenna and hook into high-speed Web access. Some Wi-Fi missionaries are techno utopians who share their high-speed Internet access for free. Others are entrepreneurs setting up for-pay networks in cafes, hotel lobbies, airports, and backcountry towns...

"Marc Benioff...CEO of Salesforce.com...[says] 'It's the 'next killer app. It's going to change the world,' he insists.

"Two aspects of 802.11 help explain why it inspires people like Benioff to such rhapsodies. The first is that the networks are incredibly cheap to build. All 802.11 systems have to piggyback on other high-speed Internet connections, such as T-1 lines, DSLs, or cable modems. Those become the original sources for the Internet signals that an 802.11 base station rebroadcasts...

"An even more compelling aspect of 802.11 networks is that their very existence seems to unleash people's creativity, and they find countless surprising ways to put the systems to work..."

Read this entire article in Business 2.0 here.

From Wired.com: "Legitimate music subscription services are struggling to make music portable to soothe consumers' clamoring for flexibility with their digital media.

"Listen.com announced Monday that its subscription service, Rhapsody, would soon join the short list of online music businesses that allow consumers to burn their own CDs with legally downloaded music.

"Rhapsody joins Pressplay and Emusic in the burning business. However, there are restrictions on Rhapsody and Pressplay, which limit the number of tracks that consumers can burn to a CD.

"Rhapsody's new service, slated to launch in May, will be limited to tracks from its classical music catalog, which makes up a small portion of its overall online business. That's still better than MusicMatch, MusicNet and FullAudio, each of which has eschewed CD burning completely...

"America Online has done all the services one better, wrapping its music offering with its ISP subscription. The company offers very limited downloads and streams, but its special promotions and music news service attract 18 million users each month."

Read this entire article in Wired here.