broadcast May 14, 2001

With all of the troubles in Hollywood these days, it's nice to know that management and labor in the entertainment biz actually agree on something--control of the Internet and milking it for everything they can get.

Until now, it's been management staking out the online turf: like movie studio lawyers shutting down web fan sites. But now the labor unions are having their say, and it's virtually silenced one of the best innovations to come out of the Internet.

Maybe you've heard of it. It's called streaming.. when you can send voices and music and videos through the Net.

In fact, What you hear over your radio right now is what you would hear through your computer if your local public radio station streams this show. Streaming isn't a high powered technology -- it works well with plain old dial-up service. For listeners, this is a good thing.

But last fall, you may remember that the labor unions representing the actors who act in commercials went on strike for higher pay. Taking their cue from management, these unions said they wanted control over the Internet. They won. So now, if a commercial is played over a streamed radio broadcast, an actor will be paid 300 percent more than he or she will get when the same commercial is played over the old-fashioned air.

That change had a huge impact on radio stations across the country. Hundreds of stations shut down their Webcasts last month when the bills came due. And if that's not bad enough, more Internet-related decisions are expected out of Washington that will drive those bills even higher.

So, why should we care? Most of us don't worry about how much money radio stations or actors make.

We should care because it's a question of freedom. We have a technology that will allow us to choose what show to listen to and, more importantly, where to listen to it. And before it's had a chance to reach its full potential, it could be snuffed out.

We should care because the threat to streaming is part of a larger trend. Whether it's the lawyers sending nasty letters to 13 year olds running fan sites, or talk of encrypting TV broadcasts, the threats to the freedom of choice that all digital technology could give us are everywhere.

But now that management and labor are in on the act, the odds whether we will have that freedom are growing longer.

In Washington, This is Art Brodsky, for Marketplace.