Dear Live365 Supporter,

I wanted to share with you some of the help we are getting from our allies on Capitol Hill. The goal is to keep the webcaster royalty issue on the agenda for Judiciary Committees in both the House and Senate.

Text of a May 21, 2008 letter from Senators Sam Brownback and Ron Wyden to Senator Patrick Leahy, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee:

Dear Chairman Leahy:

Thank you for your commitment to work with us and take action on the Internet Radio Equality Act. Your comments during the Judiciary Committee's executive business meeting on May 9, 2008 were much appreciated.

As you are aware, the March 2, 2007 decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to increase royalties for Internet radio has put an entire industry at risk. The decision highlights a major flaw in current copyright law that needs to be addressed by Congress. We have worked together to draft a fair and reasonable bipartisan bill that will give webcasters long overdue fair treatment under the Copyright Act.

We look forward to hearing from you regarding a hearing date and future markup of the Internet Radio Equality Act.

[Signed Sam Brownback and Ron Wyden, United States Senators]

Excerpt of statement from Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren during the June 11, 2008 House Judiciary hearing on the Performance Rights Act, H.R. 4789:

...the industry that is in real trouble today is the Internet radio. Many webcasters are facing royalty payments that are in excess of their entire revenues. And the Arbitron data now shows that Internet radio listenership is falling.

We have 150 members of the House who co-sponsored a bill [the Internet Radio Equality Act] to take a look at that situation a year ago. And I would ask unanimous consent to put the letter in the record. We ask that we have a hearing on this subject. I think it is pretty essential to do so.

We'll keep on fighting for rate parity in Internet radio! Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,