Liberal Talk Radio

So, we’ve been dreadfully remiss in not blogging more about internet radio issues. The Copyright Review Board just tripled royalty rates for internet broadcasters, which is driving many of them out of business. Fortunately for us, WA’s very own Jay Inslee is taking up the fight. Go Jay!

As a policy matter, it strikes me as rather odd that the commercial internet is well over a decade old and yet it still keeps its tax-free “moratorium” (as if people would stop shopping on the internet if they had to pay sales tax), while industries like internet radio get no such special treatment.

What this tells me is that government policies that are ostensibly about promoting growth in certain industries are actually about rewarding the big players in those industries with sweet, competition-free deals.