America Strikes Back

Jack Sparrow was not among them. Nor was Captain Hook or Long John Silver. The pirates of 2009 in this case are Somalis, and are showing the world that piracy is anything but glamorous…

 

Pirates have been seizing vessels of all sizes, belonging to many different countries of late. This time they tried to take on the ole USA— and failed! The story from the Times Online…

Rob Crilly, Nairobi

An American crew has seized back control of a container ship that was commandeered by pirates in the Indian Ocean today, according to the Pentagon.

The military official said the crew was holding one pirate in custody while the others were reported to “be in the water”. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not confirm how the Somalis found their way into the ocean.

Somali pirates hijacked the US-flagged container ship off the Horn of Africa, the first such attack on American interests.

John Reinhart, the CEO of Maersk, which owned the vessel, said the company was working to contact families of the crew. “Speculation is a dangerous thing when you’re in a fluid environment. I will not confirm that the crew has overtaken this ship,” he said.

All 20 American crew members aboard the Maersk Alabama were believed to be unharmed, according to Andrew Mwangura, who monitors piracy for the East African Seafarers’ Assistance Programme.

The ship was travelling to the Kenyan port of Mombasa and her cargo includes 232 containers of relief food destined for United Nations feeding programmes in Somalia and Uganda.

She was snatched after a sustained assault involving several pirate skiffs about 400 nautical miles east of Mogadishu. The attack lasted five hours as the ship tried unsuccessfully to evade the assault.

American officials said their first priority was the safety of the crew.

“The White House is closely monitoring the apparent hijacking of the US-flagged ship in the Indian Ocean and assessing a course of action to resolve this situation,” said spokesman Robert Gibbs.

The hijacking is the sixth since Saturday, as Somalia’s pirates step up their operations.

Analysts say they have begun attacking further afield and in co-ordinated waves in order to outfox an international armada of warships patrolling the Gulf of Aden.

Online Offensive Against Performance Fees

 

In the world of radio, behind the colorful personalities and upbeat music that gets us through our workday, a battle is quietly being raged that could change the face of radio as we now know it forever. What’s the battle being fought over?  Performance fees.  The fees themselves are, simply put,  a form of taxes being proposed by certain members of the music industry who claim radio stations aren’t paying their fair share to artists when their songs are played on the radio. Who will make the ultimate decision? Congress…House Bill 848, to be precise…

Here’s an article that sums it all up from RBR/TNBR…

It’s being called a “grassroots” website, but it’s well-rooted at the NAB, which is promoting NoPerformanceTax.org as an “advocacy tool” to fight attempt by record labels to collect money from radio stations. The site includes resources that the NAB hopes stations will use locally to battle the labels.

“This is a multifaceted resource that our members can use to educate lawmakers and listeners on the dire consequences of a performance tax that threatens the very survival of free, local radio,” said NAB Executive Vice President Dennis Wharton. “On behalf of our 235 million weekly radio listeners, NAB urges member stations to take advantage of this new Web site and stand united against a cynical money-grab by the foreign-owned record labels.”

The website uses an interactive display of gold and platinum records presented to radio stations in appreciation for their instrumental role in generating the kind of sales necessary to earn those kinds of records. The website notes, “Local radio stations provide billions of dollars in promotional value to artists and record labels. In appreciation, the record labels bestow upon radio stations ‘gold’ and ‘platinum’ albums to show their gratitude.”

RBR/TVBR observation: The performance royalty question is triangular. But all Congress seems to want to look at is this bizarre two-way conflict wherein the big record companies hide behind musicians and take to broadcasters. When is Congress going to look at the horrific relationship between musicians v. labels? Why is that segment of the triangle being completely ignored? Why, Mr. Conyers? Why, Mr. Leahy?