Growing an audience and holding its attention for as long as possible is the primary objective of radio. But in the world of New Media, webcasters also have a newer objective by law and out of moral responsibility — to protect the intellectual property of the artists and record labels they showcase. The problem we face is that the duplication of digital recordings can be very accurate and can be distributed without limit. This is most unlike the days of cassette-taping songs from radio where the inherent limitations of the cassette tape medium and the broadcast mixture pretty much ensured the copied music would not go far. American "fair use" laws took into consideration the limitations of cassette-taping but had no foresight of the magnitude of the abuse demonstrated with desktop media and the Internet we now observe decades later. We at Groovera sympathize with this dilemma and do whatever we can to do our part to protect the artists' intellectual property and to uphold the law, even at the partial sacrifice of audience.

American webcasters, including Groovera, are all under obligation of United States Federal copyright law (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, specifically) to prevent stream recording efforts. Although we realize that many listeners only want to "place shift" the streams — like TiVo for web radio — some very faithful listeners have reported incidents of abuse to us over the years ranging from the sharing on P2P networks files ripped from Groovera streams to the distribution of amateur MP3 compilations comprised of tracks lifted from our early webcasts. Given these experiences, it is clear to us why laws such as the DMCA are in effect and we willfully comply with this particular mandate in defense of the stakeholder artists and record labels, especially since nearly all of those that we feature are small, independent and barely profit, if at all. In fact, many of Groovera's artists are unsigned, self-represented and are more easily victimized by piracy.

To further our will to prohibit stream recording, webcasters now also must pay an exorbitant royalty rate per listener session, per song. For example, one thousand listeners hearing one song equates to one thousand performances of that one song. The rates proposed calculate to FIVE TIMES our operation costs alone and are in reality designed to shut down small independent web radio stations in America. Many streamrippers occupy two or more sessions at a time while recording and leave their recorders running for days on end, making their sessions much more expensive for the webcaster than ordinary listening activity.

Many listeners we have blocked from stream recording over the years have been quick to point out that our highest-profile peers in the world of web radio do absolutely nothing to prevent web recording efforts. That is a choice those webcasters have made and a policy that we have never agreed with — allowing stream recording is still unethical and in violation of U.S. Federal copyright law. With the exorbitant new royalty rates imposed, it seems those webcasters would recognize stream recording as one of the myriad reasons contributing to the introduction of the financially detrimental legislation we all oppose but yet they still assume none of the basic responsibility to protect the artists and labels they showcase. The music is simply not ours to give away!

Groovera has always assumed our responsibility to the artists and labels we play and we hope that our audience respects the fact those who provide the soundtrack to our lives with this music deserve a paycheck just like everyone else who works for a living. We also hope our audience appreciates and respects Groovera's bottom line as well, being that we are FULLY self-supported, TRULY independent and operate without donated bandwidth and backing from AOL/Time-Warner as many of our peers do — some of whom still demand your financial support and claim to be "independent" all the while. We would rather reserve the expensive bandwidth we pay for out-of-pocket for the music-lovers who are enjoying Groovera radio streams in real time; listeners who are supportive of the artists and our endeavor. We are not in service to fund the theft of music, regardless of any argument imposed in defense of stream recording.

Please bear in mind that we reserve the right to permanently refuse service to abusers. Much effort and expense goes into building our audience and losing listenership is counterproductive to our endeavor. But if stream recording is your primary objective, Groovera is not in service for you and we ask that you respectfully take your activities elsewhere.

In closing, we ask that you remember to purchase the music you love whenever possible so that you help the artists you enjoy to keep growing their careers and creating more of the sound you love. File sharing and stream recording does indeed negatively impact the ability of small independent labels to stay in business and stymies the ability of up-and-coming artists to get a foothold in the music industry. Be sure also to remember that Groovera relies upon your support. Being a true independent web radio station means that we have no other financial backing without your contributions.

Thank you for your listenership!