Well, that's a tad depressing.

My friend Jen tipped me off to something called "Pandora" last year, and I've been a subscriber ever since. It's Internet radio with a difference...it "learns" your tastes as it goes, with input from you the listener. Pandora has exposed me to all sorts of artists I never would have heard of any other way. Its library ranges from number-one hits all the way down to songs there's a good chance you'll never hear anywhere (although you should!)

Among the discoveries I've made:

Johnathan Coulton...quirky folk artist, gently funny songs
Hayley Westenra...beautiful clear soprano with the best rendition of "Both Sides Now" I've heard, maybe including Joni Mitchell's original. Mom, you'd love her.
Sixwire...rollicking alt-country, tight, slick harmonies.
Laura Powers...a pagan singer strongly reminiscent of Loreena McKennitt.

Of course, I had to cheat to gain access to Pandora, as did the many thousands of other Canadians who have signed up to have this endless stream of music piped into their computers. You need a U.S. address to sign up. Well, that's a trivial obstacle. I do believe I made mine up, and just made sure the zip code and town matched.
I felt no guilt doing this. The way I looked at it, a desirable service was being offered to one group of people, while my group was excluded purely because we lived on the wrong side of a wholly imaginary line. Doutless I broke at least one law somewhere. In the case of silly laws like that, I try to hold myself to the higher moral code embodied in Heinlein's Eleventh Commandment: Thou shalt not get caught.

Caught I was. Caught were we all. After more than a year's enjoyment, I got a message in my inbox today from the founder of Pandora.
The message was headed "Change to Availability In Canada", which gave me hope that they'd found a way to make it legal. After all, while I won't quibble over disobeying laws when no harm to persons or property is involved, I would much rather be on the side of the angels, given a choice.
No such luck. The letter, which is quite lengthy, is full of words like "saddened" and "regretfully" and it says that due to their inability to secure international licenses, they will start blocking access in a couple of days.
I don't pretend to understand this. It should be a simple matter to determine how many times each song by each artist is being played, and distribute royalties based on that information. If it was announced that Pandora would henceforth be a pay-only service, I would accept it...and probably find some money to pay my share. Indeed, it amazes me just how much free content there is on the Internet. You can read any number of newspapers without paying a cent. You can play flash games that are admittedly quaint by the gory standards of the industry, but you can do it gratis, and similar games once cost $50 or more to play. I'm always amazed by the few people I still hear saying "I can't afford the Internet". It's the best deal in human history.

So, Americans, if you haven't used Pandora and you like music, do yourselves a favour and click here. And spare a thought for us deprived Canucks.

(Jen, if you know of any alternatives, I'd be glad to hear them.)