More on internet radio

Kurt Hanson posted an informative history of copyright law in the US, at least as it pertains to music recordings. The basic point of copyright, as he points out, is not to protect the artist; it's to promote the public good, and it does this by protecting the artist. Over the past ten years or so, we've seen legislation that intended to do this be influenced by the major record labels, and the overall effect has been to turn copyright into a tool used against both artists and the public. No-one benefits by the most recent legislation the RIAA purchased; the labels think they will, but that argument has been proven wrong every other time they've made it in parallel circumstances.

As a side note, NPR's pretty peeved about this too. I've only seen snippets from their press release, not the actual thing, but they're speaking up about it. Again, the point of copyright and licensing is to promote the public good by protecting artists from being ripped off; now, the group that has ripped off more musicians than any other in national history is using copyright law to keep public radio from playing music.