A recent editorial examines the recent focus of the new Democratic congress on Internet Radio. Currently, online radio is largely unregulated, and services like Punkradiocast and college stations are free to serve niche audiences otherwise ignored by the major radio networks.

The proposed law would - among other things - require that Internet broadcasters protect their audio streams with DRM technology. The difficulty with DRM systems in this case, is that it will effectively force stations to purchase expensive DRM equipment; beyond that, it would impose new licensing and royalty fees beyond even that which traditional radio stations pay. The costs would be prohibitive for most college and internet-only broadcasters and effectively create a monopoly for mainstream music stations.

The end result, the article concludes, would be to kill internet radio, and by extension, prevent the many alternative music sources from continuing to broadcast. Punk and independent culture would be most harmed by this, particularly since mainstream radio effectively ignores all but the most popular acts and most conventional viewpoints.