The AP is reporting that a panel of copyright judges threw out an appeal to an earlier ruling that raises royalty payments for Internet radio stations.

From the AP story: "[The judges] did give into one point: allowing the webcasters to calculate fees by average listening hours, like before, as opposed to the new system of charging a royalty each time every song is heard by an online listener. That exemption counts for last year and this year. After that, the new per-song, per-listener fee structure goes into effect."

This affects everyone from Web radio to streaming mobile stations, and makes it that much more difficult for smaller, independent music channels to thrive online.

Judges Reject Appeals From Webcasters [AP via MocoNews]