One of my favorite webcasters is WFMU in Jersey City, NJ. Thanks to new record industry royalties, WFMU will probably have to stop streaming and may go off the air altogether. Writes station manager Ken Freedman: "The record industry's contention that it is only trying to receive fair compensation for their music is hard to believe, given that so many webcasters will simply go out of business. The record industry cannot collect fees from companies who cease to exist. How much will the RIAA collect now from Yahoo?"

During a July 26th phone-in show, Freedman also suggested that Broadcast.com negotiated fees with the RIAA with the objective of setting them so high that it would drive other webcasters out of business. Since that fee structure is the basis for the current royalty, the big players seem to have reached their objectives.