Rasa Smite on Fri, 28 Mar 1997 15:13:32 +0100 (MET)


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<nettime> Riga Internet Radio OZOne - PIRATE BROADCASTER?!


Riga Internet Radio OZOne - PIRATE BROADCASTER?!

Radio on the Net - world wide place to broadcast. 
Just we had a question - are the pirate radios still ‘pirate’ if they
broadcast on the Net? Since yesterday we have an answer - radio on the Net,
if we have more then 25 streams - is illegal, at least in Latvia. 
And it doesn’t matter that we broadcast from Berlin or Amsterdam, that we
don’t have our own server (neither Web nor real audio). But if radio
Web-site is placed in Riga, we are broadcasters from Latvia and if we will
broadcast from Amsterdam xs4all server with more then 25 lines - radio OZOne
will be illegal. Riga’s pirate. 

On Wednesday, March 26 there was an opening of the Internet radio OZOne in Riga.
On the next day (20 hours later) we already had first response - phone call
from an official person of Latvian TV and Radio Board. He started with a
question how many streams we have - I said: we have no streams, we broadcast
from Berlin and there are 20, but soon there will be more from Amsterdam.
He said - when we will have more then 25 streams (whenever they are!) we
must register officially in the Latvian TV and Radio Board, otherwise our
Internet radio will be lawless and would be closed.

There in Latvia is such law since 1995 which refers to the ‘potential
future’ Internet broadcasters as well. It means, that small circle of people
had rights to control future Internet broadcasters without asking their
opinion, without giving them any opportunity to discuss, just because in
1995 there was no Internet broadcasters there in Latvia.

And all this is about 10 music pieces we have started with…
We started our radio experiments with broadcasting (not live yet) from
Berlin - Radio Internationale Stadt real audio server and very soon also we
plan to broadcast from XS4ALL in Amsterdam. At the moment there are various
alternative music pieces, some of them made several years ago, mixed and
published just now - first time in radio OZOne.
We will publish there new experimental music, different sound performances,
radio-plays with participation of young poets and writers, interviews, news.

Though the main idea of OZOne radio is - independent media, space for
alternative opinions. 
There in Latvia is still lack of independent points of views in mass media,
creative people’s opinions, there is no experience in independent media.

When I said to that person from Radio Board, that we will be independent and
strictly non-profit, he called us ‘a group of fanatics’.
If the only sense of our civilization’s existence is in producing products
and turning them in to the money, then he is right.

We didn’t expect that we with our small Internet broadcaster will touch the
system in their most delicate point.

With interest to hear your opinion,

Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits
------------------------------------------------------
Lots of love,
Riga Internet radio OZOne 
<http://www.parks.lv/home/E-Lab/OZOne>
-------------------------------------------------------
E-L@b: <http://www.parks.lv/home/E-Lab>

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