UPDATE: I heard that now Pandra is rejecting access from Japan, the reason not confirmed.  TechCrunch had covered the story thoroughly, as always.  They are gonna fileter by country IP address. I haven’t received the mail, maybe they sent to the old address. Not sure if this also applies to my favorite WBLS 107.5 online streaming now available overseas, too.
  As somewhat anticipated by Sean Ryan of Shark Jumping, internet radio like Pandora is in jeopady. I ve received the following email from Pandora (I assume all of Pandora users too.) Not sure I, as a Japanese national, can help by voting but if you are a US citizen then you can help them.
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I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays, and broadcast radio doesn’t pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.
In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.
Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: http://capwiz.com/saveinternetr
Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends – the more petitioners we can get, the better.
Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I’m no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster’s business potential.
I hope you’ll take just a few minutes to sign our petition – it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.
As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.
-Tim Westergren