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This following act is currently undergoing voting in the U.S. Congress:

Performance Rights Act - Amends federal copyright law to: (1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters; (2) establish a flat annual fee in lieu of payment of royalties for individual terrestrial broadcast stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million and for noncommercial, public broadcast stations; (3) grant an exemption from royalty payments for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings; and (4) grant terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings a per program license option. Prohibits taking into account license fees payable for public performance via digital audio transmission of sound recordings in any proceeding to set or adjust the license fees for the purpose of reducing or adversely affecting such license fees. (Current law prohibits taking those fees into account in such a proceeding without referencing the purpose.) Prohibits anything in this Act from adversely affecting the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works. Prohibits taking into account the rates established by the Copyright Royalty Judges in any proceeding to reduce or adversely affect the license fees payable for public performances by terrestrial broadcast stations. Requires that such license fees for the public performance of musical works be independent of license fees paid for the public performance of sound recordings. Revises provisions relating to proceeds from the licensing of transmissions.

This will eliminate local and internet radio stations as we know them. When you turn on a radio, you expect music to be there, but this bill before Congress might change that. Congress could soon force stations to pay a fee every time they play songs - or pay to play. The recording industry heavily lobbied Congress to get the bill in front of the House and Senate. They want compensation from radio stations who make billions in sales by playing songs without paying artists and record labels. To fight back, the National Association of Broadcasters lobbied for the Local Radio Freedom Act. The fight is not only a split between party lines, but also by geography. The record company's bill is mostly supported by representatives in the Northeast and California. The Radio Stations' Act is supported by representatives mostly in the South and Midwest, including in West Virginia. There's no word when the House or Senate will vote on the bills. Radio stations already compensate the writers and composers of music when it's played. An independent analyst estimates stations could pay between $2 billion to $7 billion in fees if the bill passes.

We the people of the United States Of America do not want this bill passed.