As a response to the new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board in D.C., Yahoo! has decided to turn off their online radio service, LAUNCHcast for the day. Unfortunately not all online radio stations are participating in today’s protest. I went and checked out one of the radio stations on my iTunes application and it was playing as normal. I seriously doubt that this is going to have any effect but it surely has created buzz in the blogosphere. The rate increases are pretty ridiculous. Royalty costs will increase 300 percent for large webcasters and nearly 1,200 percent for smaller operations. According to CNSNews, Live365 will experience an increase in royalties of a whopping $4.2 million. Many have called for the rate hikes to be appealed but there is no sign of any turnaround. It will be interesting to see if Yahoo’s actions make any difference.