A selection of your
comments on the PPL issue

This is just greed by the PPL. Surely the small audience that these streams attract is not worth this action. Artists being played on these stations would almst certainly be grateful for the exposure. The offshore pirates in the 1960s did nothing but good for British music and very few artists complained, but in fact, applauded Radio Caroline and the other stations.

Peter, Cambridgeshire, UK

What small-minded cheap ******* figured out how to rob someone of a few more pounds? Just how could a UK station gain any extra funds by broadcasting overseas on the web. This new rule sucks big time and just makes your island that much smaller in this great big world. Hope someone wakes up and realizes what's going on.

Jon, Pennsylvania, USA

This turn of events is an absolute travesty. I have family working in UK radio, and can no longer listen to his station live. Thank goodness Radios 1 and 2 are not affected by this. US Radio can be pretty bad - especially where I live - and the internet is where I spend a great deal of time listening, especially to the UK stations. Hopefully, in a matter of time, this will all sort itself out - as it has in the US. But for now, we must suffer because of corporate greed.

Rich, North Carolina, USA

I think that overseas listeners should be allowed to listen at no additional costs for the stations. How many of those listeners are there anyway? It's not that there are millions!

Jack, North Brabant, The Netherlands

I am learning english and I used to listen the radio on internet, I can't understand why England doesn't want to promote her language abroad. It is not English common sense in this measure.

Daniel, Madrid, Spain

I'm very sorry for this electronic wall that can be seen as a new version of the Berlin Wall!!

Virgilio, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

We do not have to forget that PPL are not talking about freedom, open internet, or sharing information, but money. My answer is a very simple riddle: The more I listen to UK radio, the more I buy UK music. The less I listen UK radios, the less I..... The answer is: Restrictions are against restrictors.

Didier, Paris, France

I'm from the UK but I now live in New Zealand and my husband is a Kiwi who spent an amount of time in the UK. We both really used to enjoy listening to radio from home (mostly Rock FM from Lancashire and several of the Portsmouth radio stations). We are gutted that we can no longer keep up with our favourite stations - it's ridiculous and isolating. Yes, it was my choice to move offshore, but I am still very fond of the UK and we both got a lot of enjoyment keeping up with stuff from home. Local stuff rather than the general big news stuff that we get included in our National News programmes. Very upset about the whole internet broadcasting thing.

Judith, Wellington, New Zealand

What a shame... We work in a British grocery store in Amsterdam where we listen to our local radio stations from Britain on a daily basis. It's great to keep up with the news and music and it allowed our customers to also feel at home here in the The Netherlands whilst buying their Marmite and teabags. If a small business on mainland Europe can offer ex-pats "Home from Home" then so can the radio.... What good is a World Wide Web if the world is limited to within small pockets of the United Kingdom?

Mark & Kevin, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

I just came on board with Forth2 a month ago and now it's gone. Perhaps if these stations sold "international" air time to the larger world-wide companies instead of only to local city-regional sponsors they could pay for this addition. As a long-time international online-radio listener, I have experienced this before. In the late 1980's and early 1990's, this same thing happened in the US. Both with standard commercial stations and Christian radio I frequented. Not long after streaming, the government or whoever stepped in to limit listeners the same way. They either changed their minds or changed the legislation shortly thereafter.

Paul, Ontario, Canada

As an expatriate Brit, I am extremely disappointed that I am no longer able to listen on-line to my favourite radio stations from home. I work all over the world, often in third world countries, and being able to listen to radio from home is very important. So much for the global community!

Marc, Indonesia / Australia / Ethiopia

Bitterly disappointed. I'm from the UK, but have been living in North East Thailand for the last 9 months. There are no English language radio stations within range here so I used to enjoy listening to the same Liverpool radio station I've tuned into since the day it first transmitted in 1974. Now it's been cut off!! All for the greed of the royalty collectors? Expats around the world have been hit a cruel blow by this decision. Whilst I would urge the PPL to reconsider, I hold up little hope that they will.

Paul, Isan, Thailand

How disappointing! I thought the internet was a way to bring the world together. Here in Sweden, decent radio is limited. I need my local UK stations otherwise I feel isolated. Please PPL, think of us Brits living abroad in need of decent radio. Let there be free streaming!!!

Andrew, Skåne County, Sweden

This pettiness is what historians will refer to when they talk about the meanness of our times. We couldn't even distribute a public good without somebody hollering about money. We'll all be dead by the time such attitudes are denounced. Long ago a generation of Egyptians stripped the façade off the great pyramids and cut those blocks up to make stone huts out of them. It's the equivalent of cutting down the ancient redwood forests in California to build planned condominiums. That generation's poverty of spirit has returned. We're carrying on a tradition, I suppose.

Dennis, New York, USA

What's the point of limiting the streams to the UK only? If I was in the UK I would be listening on the radio. What total moron thought this up? The reason to listen in via the Internet is because I can't listen to the stations on my radio. Always bitching about British bands having a hard time making it into the US market, so what do you do..... limit the market exposure even more by not letting US listeners hear the new music via the Internet. This is totally ridiculous and a total shame for all of us living outside of the British Isles. I am so gutted! This has to be changed ASAP.. makes no sense!!!

Angela, Asturias, Spain

Sieg Heil PPL!!! All hell would break loose if we were to ban internet access to the Ashes Test series or Rugby League or Rules from down here in Australia. Even your own travelling "Barmy Army" supporters think the PPL deal stinks. It looks like I will have to stick to the BBC. Come on Poms......rebel!!!

Bryan, Sydney, Australia

Well done(!) This attitude is why internet piracy is alive and well: recording companies are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. Their inability to change with the times has seen the rise of sites such as YouTube. It does not cost me to listen to radio in Scotland so why should it here in Sydney when I could listen to Aussie radio when I was in Scotland. Shame shame shame, you greedy industry. You are destroying yourselves.

Greig, Sydney, Australia

I don't understand people getting so het up about UK radio stations restricting their feeds to UK only. The PPL act for the artists collecting royalties as their music is played. Surely if anyone is being greedy here it is either the artists themselves who want more royalties or the radio stations themselves who refuse to pay those royalties. The radio stations get their money from advertising, someone in Colorado is not going to buy a car from a garage in Blackburn, why should that person benefit from the advertising income? Surely the only answer for non-UK listeners has to be subscriptions. Just because something was free doesn't mean it must be free forever!

Al, Berkshire, UK

Silly me, and I thought that the internet was free. This restriction smells like communism. How are we "in the colonies" supposed to keep abreast of information in the UK if their free speech has been supressed? Do the restrictors wear green fatigues and smoke very large cigars?? I think Sir Winston would roll over in his grave if he was aware of such bull crap.

Robert, Alberta, Canada

Interesting.. governments are "powerless" to prevent adult content being accessed from overseas but the music industry can prevent music from being heard abroad. I suspect if the government was as interested in the child porn from certain countries they could realy do something to prevent its access.

David, Queensland, Australia