NPR protests Webcaster fee hikes

National Public Radio has filed a challenge to that some have decried as an assault on Internet radio services.

On behalf of some 1,000 member stations and non-NPR stations accredited by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, NPR filed a petition for rehearing with the Copyright Royalty Board just before the 5 p.m. EST deadline for such filings on Monday.

The CRB's new rules (PDF), released about two weeks ago, would impose rate hikes of .08 cents per streamed song per listener retroactive to 2006 and then climb by 30 percent each year until 2010, ending at .19 cents per song per listener. Each station would also have to hand over a minimum $500 royalty payment under the ruling.

Critics say the new burden will effectively wipe smaller commercial Webcasters off the map. NPR, for its part, argues in its filing that the rules are constructed in a way that imposes impossible requirements on the public radio system and would cause its annual royalty payouts to jump more than fivefold.

"The new rates inexplicably break with the longstanding tradition of recognizing public radio's non-commercial, non-profit role, while the procedures we're being asked to now undertake for measurement are non-existent, arbitrary and costly," NPR spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said in a statement.

NPR's next step is filing an appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Sporkin said, but it was unclear when that may happen. It was also not immediately clear how many other organizations have made separate filings that formally protest the rules set by the panel. Concerned Internet radio operators have already begun circulating online petitions blasting the changes.