Corporate killers

Two weeks ago, the best radio station I've ever heard announced that if it cannot find enough subscribers by March 6, it might shut down forever. \nWOXY.com is an independent, Internet-based station that plays modern rock like '60s FM radio used to play modern rock -- like MTV in the '80s used to play modern rock. In short, its disc jockeys (not computers) spend every day bursting the boomer-promoted myth that music today doesn't hold a candle to the "good old days." I'd hazard a guess that it introduces more new artists in two hours than MTV does in a week (or, would, if it still showed music videos). \nBut despite offering an exceptional service, WOXY is scrambling for survival, thanks to bandwidth costs and licensing fees. Incredibly, whereas major record labels will go so far as bribe music directors to play their music on terrestrial radio (you'll see a Sony logo next to payola in the dictionary), they actually charge Internet radio stations to play their music. \nFolks, there's a war on for the very heart of our culture. And you and I are losing -- because most people are too distracted, or resigned, or ignorant, or apathetic; or, worst of all, too content with letting someone else call the shots for them.\nI'm not talking about some grand global conflict of ideologies, or even squabbles between America's political right, left, and middle. No, I'm talking about the steady drive media conglomerates, major software firms, the Federal Communications Commission and others are making toward exercising tighter control over digital media -- which, in the 21st century, means all media.\nNo -- no need for the tinfoil headgear. This is no conspiracy theory, not unless extraterrestrials are secretly running the Recording Industry Association of America (although this would help explain the Grammys). The problem is that fear regarding the easy distribution and reproduction of digitized material (say, music) has led the industries to want to control every aspect of how you use their \nproduct.\nWhen they went after filesharers, this seemed reasonable -- people were downloading entire catalogs of music without paying for it. And artists gotta eat -- I don't need emaciated drummers on my front lawn. When they went after samplers, this too made some sense. It's one thing to use a sample of someone else's music purely for art's sake; it's another to make money off it without cutting them a piece of the pie. But then Sony hid computer-compromising rootkits in their CDs. And now, the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- a digital copyright consumer group -- is warning that the RIAA has argued that people do not have the right to rip CDs to their computers or iPods. \nWhere will it end?\nPostscript: If you want to join the good fight, WOXY's address is www.woxy.com. Membership is $9.95 a month, but on the message boards you'll find fans who'll sponsor your first month to try it out no strings attached (check the "adapt-a-listener" thread).