Stephen Downes

The answer is: webcasters don't play very much RIAA music. "The situation really is a win-win for the RIAA (in the short-term). It either kills off those webcasters who don't contribute to the homogenization of music, or it forces them to pay large sums even if they only play non-RIAA music." Now take this sort of story, and apply the logic back to the debate about restrictive licensing clauses in free content. This is why you need such clauses - because the commercial agencies will use any tactic they can - such as the current campaign against webcasters - to prevent the proliferation of (competing) free content.