Webcasters and Record Industry Both Appeal Royalty Ruling

jonesvery writes: "Both Webcasters and record companies are appealing the proposed royalty structure suggested by an arbitration panel, according to this LA Times story. It should surprise no one that the Webcasters feel that the proposed royalties are absurdly high, while the record companies wants them to be higher -- at levels set in independent deals negotiated between the RIAA and a couple of dozen companies. The fact that many of the companies that made these independent deals with the RIAA couldn't make enough money to both pay the royalties and stay in business doesn't seem to worry the record companies much. Funny, that..." We did an earlier story about the royalty ruling. The internet radio community seems to be just a bit upset about the whole thing.

Comments

Copyrights vs Patents

[cybermage]

I wonder what the founding fathers would have thought of these guys taking copyright to such an extreme that it threatens the usability of new technology.

Engineers have taken the time to create, patent and license technology to stream audio over the web. Now, copyright holders of the audio content are trying to price content so high that the use of the patented invention becomes infeasible.

I would think that copyright was never intended to be a weapon to strangle invention.

Just my $.02. Keep the change.