One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Internet Radio May Survive, But Only With Lots of DRM:
The imminent death of internet radio due to unreasonable licensing and fee hikes might not be so imminent, at least as long as radio stations are willing to pile the DRM onto their streams as demanded by SoundExchange. Wanting to end the practice of “streamripping,” the equivalent of the fair-use-sanctioned practice of taping songs off FM radio, SoundExchange is hinging their compromise proposal on the adoption of DRM technologies by all internet radio stations. It’s good news that there’s a better chance of stations staying on the air, but the fact that they need to inhibit fair use to do so is pretty weak. [Ars Technica]