Free as in "not"

The House has passed a bill which will give small webcasters some breathing room. Small webcasters (i.e., the ones that aren’t making significant revenue) will pay 7% of their expenses in royalty fees yearly. This is very reasonable compared to the proposed .07 cents per song per listener.

It’s still higher than a traditional radio station pays, and there’s some question about how much of the resulting revenues will filter down to the artists. It’s important to remember that while this is better than the original proposal, it is not fair. It’s also important to remember that we ought to donate to our favorite stations, since they clearly need the cash.