Web Radio: Time to Sign Off?

Higher-than-expected royalty rates will force U.S. webcasters to close up shop

3 min read

On 20 June, James Billington, head of the U.S. Library of Congress, surprised the music world when he settled on a copyright royalty rate for streaming music on the Web. The rate, at a modest 70 millicents (US $0.0007) per song per listener, can add up quickly. Many Web radio stations would have to pay out more in royalties each year than they could make in advertising.

By the next day, one leading Web radio station, SomaFM (San Francisco), shut down, and many more are expected to follow by September, when the rate goes into effect.

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How Police Exploited the Capitol Riot’s Digital Records

Forensic technology is powerful, but is it worth the privacy trade-offs?

11 min read
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 Illustration of the silhouette of a person with upraised arm holding a cellphone in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Superimposed on the head is a green matrix, which represents data points used for facial recognition
Gabriel Zimmer
Green

The group of well-dressed young men who gathered on the outskirts of Baltimore on the night of 5 January 2021 hardly looked like extremists. But the next day, prosecutors allege, they would all breach the United States Capitol during the deadly insurrection. Several would loot and destroy media equipment, and one would assault a policeman.

No strangers to protest, the men, members of the America First movement, diligently donned masks to obscure their faces. None boasted of their exploits on social media, and none of their friends or family would come forward to denounce them. But on 5 January, they made one piping hot, family-size mistake: They shared a pizza.

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