Submitted by johnh on March 16, 2006 - 20:04.

This about wraps it up for Britain, then.

The major labels have just jumped from "you can't have a webcasting license at all unless you're also on AM or FM" to "if anyone outside the territorial UK can heatr you we'll sue your tits off".

Words fail me. I'm also obliged to mention that this represents a complete reversal of everything. Up until now they've only been interested in where you're based, not where your broadcasting station or your listeners are.

Now, not only can you not legally send audio to anyone outside UK, but you also still can't broadcast to overseas people by publishing your output to (say) Shoutcast and paying commercial rates for it.

Four things spring to mind.

First, that the Big 5 policy on internet radio is that they want to kill it by any means available.

Second, that their methods are a restraint on trade. They're offering entirely different terms to different radio stations based exclusively on what they use for transmission.

Third, that five groups acting in concert to restrict competition in the radio market for their own financial benefit represents, in this case, a vast number of criminal acts on the part of a large number of people under UK and European anti-trust legislation. They're restricting trade and pricefixing both, and five groups and 20-odd labels with at least two representatives each are involved. That's at least fifty possible criminal indictments right there, collectively worth nine figures in fines.

Lastly, yet another huge opportunity for Ireland which we're missing. At some point, will someone please tell someone about how much feckin' money we can bring in if we open up geodata, create a fair and legally-protected environment for internet radio in a country which uses the Euro and speaks English, commit ourselves to making use of the world's largest source of wave energy off the west coast?

The UK never stops dropping the ball these days and Ireland, in turn, never misses an opportunity to fumble the catch.

It's enough to make a person run for office.

delicious | digg | reddit