The ongoing debate over the royalty rates Internet radio sites must pay to play music has been full of vocal arguments on both sides for months.

Protesting with silence.

But silence will prevail tomorrow, as webcasters will observe 24 hours of silence to protest the Copyright Royalty Board's landmark decision to substantially increase the royalty rate, a move that has many Internet radio sites suggesting they might go under as a result.

With the new rates set to take effect July 15, the SaveNetRadio coalition has organized the National Day of Silence for tomorrow, and most large online music and radio providers are participating, including Yahoo!, Real (Rhapsody), Accuradio, Live365, MTV, and Pandora. Those sites will be silent for 24 hours, with some sites, like LA-based KCRW, choosing to repeatedly stream D Day for Webcasters, a one-hour program about the issue from the perspectives of webcasters.

However, Last.fm, the UK-based social networking and music streaming site that was recently purchased by CBS, will not be participating. The company has not officially commented on the Day of Silence.

Sitting out the Day of Silence.

But in a forum posting about the subject on the Last.fm site, company staffer Russ Garrett wrote, "We will not observe the US national day of silence: we are a UK company, and we broadcast to hundreds of countries. The US decision doesn't affect us much. CBS have nothing to do with this--we are an independently run UK company, which happens to be owned by CBS. It makes no difference. We're unable to participate because it may compromise ongoing licensing negotiations. I'm sorry I can't be more specific; it annoys me too."

That post incited several responses from Last.fm users, including one from Ringo Kamens.

"I didn't think it would come so soon, but it has," Kamen wrote. "When corporations take over something, they ruin it, and they are already starting to ruin Last.fm. It's sick that you are placing corporate priorities over user ones and ignoring our voices to make a little small change."

In March, the Copyright Royalty Board passed new rules, which will send the royalty for some sites doubling and nearly tripling. There have been several legislative efforts to address the issue, and webcasters have also filed a request for a stay on the new royalty rates through the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. None of those efforts have produced results yet, however, and none of the legislation has even been put to a vote.