A Day of Silence

Many, many sites in Second Life are augmented by audio streams; "Internet radio stations," as they're called.

If you're on the grid as I write this, you may have found some such streams inaudible. That's because most Internet radio sites have cut off their feeds today, in protest of an outrageous ruling that imposes royalties paid for each time anyone listens to a song... and imposes them retroactively to the beginning of 2006. They are due to take effect in mid-July 2007, unless something is done.

If you are a US citizen, I urge you to immediately call your Senators and Representative to urge their support and co-sponsoring of S. 1353 (for the Senate) and H.R. 2060 (for the House of Representatives), the "Internet Radio Equality Act." For more details, visit www.savenetradio.org.

Unless something is done, in not quite three weeks much of the Internet and much of SL will fall silent; nobody can afford the royalties that will go into effect. Act now.