Slashdot Mirror
Broadcasters Appeal Royalty Ruling
tanveer1979 pointed out this story, but his summary of it wasn't much good. :) According to Reuters and Kurthanson.com, broadcasters (regular radio stations, not webcasters) are appealing a year-old ruling which would require them to make the same royalty payments for webcasting that webcast-only stations have to make. They're arguing that Congress intended the royalty payments to apply only to internet services which allow one to pick what music one receives - if the listener is force-fed a stream, like regular radio, Congress didn't intend for the royalty payments to apply.
Well since Clearchannel seems to always get what they want when it comes to congress and they are against the fees I would guess that it will be a tough battle. Since there is popular support for killing the fees it may happen as we are aproaching an election cycle and a combination of big $ from clearchannel and popular setiment are both things congresscritters look for at that time.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
If they lose, well, that goes without saying what would be bad about that.
But if they win, it could put a real squeeze on webcast-only stations.
At the moment, they've been lumped in with traditional stations that simulcast, in a kind of middle ground.
If this goes through, it could split that middle ground, sending the traditional stations back to where they used to be (a good thing), but send the webcasters further into the perverbial abyss of royalty payments.
Dark Nexus
"Sanity is calming, but madness is more interesting."
umm, not to be fussy, but I would like to point out that an appeal is usually heard before the JUDICIAL branch, and the only time the RIAA is going to be able to "lobby" is when their legal team is on the floor.
Personally, I believe that they might just get it thrown out, as selective enforcement, but the issue is really what the "intent" of the law was. The danger of my "stealing" a song from streaming audio is about the same as my stealing it off the radio.
I'd love to see the lawyers say something like this: "It doesn't matter whether they _could_ copy it from our stream, because they are FAR more likely to copy it from kazaa" and watch the RIAA's head explode.
hmmmm?
While we're hoping for things, I hope they BOTH lose and that consumers and independent webcasters and artists win. Actually, I also hope they both WIN, but only on the points that benefit consumers.
Unlikely I know, but when you have big money (Music) against big money (Radio) things start to get interesting and not so clear cut. Both sides will invest a lot of money to offer up compeling arguments for their side and against the other side. This is the ideal time for the little guy to come in and offer the wisdom of Solomon, selectively using the arguments of both parties to point out a rational compromise that benefits the end user and appeals to common sense.
Just a dream? Maybe. But there is a finite likelihood that a judge or lawmakers will propose a compromise. Since we agree with some of the arguments from both sides, why not lobby to ensure that the compromise is split to the consumers benefit? Also, this approach provides the politician or judge attractive rationale to justify what might otherwise be an arbitrary solution.
My next sig will be ready soon, but friends can beat the rush!
I think the Slashdot community should start practicing a little bit of civil disobedience. Refuse to pay the fines, and broadcast over the web anyways. There are at least several thousand web radio services out there, if somebody wanted to enforce the law, they would have another DE-CSS or Gnutella on their hands.. They could try to shut down sites, but inevitably fail, and cause a huge uprising amongst the online community, and probably most of the offline as well. Any and all lawsuits involving money will eventually crumble, because it's hard to call a nerdy kid in his parent's basement an evil cybercriminal for simply playing back music. Also, good luck trying to get any money out of him.
If you don't agree with the laws & regulations, don't abide by them. Take some risks. I mean, I'm not going around saying we should start torching the RIAA building with molotov cocktails or anything, but when stupid stuff like webcaster royalties comes up, complain about it and broadcast anyways.
You guys need to get more guts. We've been fighting corporate radio with no-license pirate radio for years.. they send MARSHALS to bust those places, for god sakes! Saying you disagree with something is important, but you're not making any progress until you start being an activist, too. The big wigs that create things like webcaster royalties don't talk, they ACT. You need to start acting too, or they're just going to trample on your rights while you sit there saying "Well I don't agree with this.."
I think the hypocrisy of the RIAA is even more sad. From the Reuters article: "Rather than seek special treatment from the courts, we encourage the broadcasters to work with the labels and artists as our industries transition into new businesses," said Steven Marks, a senior vice president at the RIAA.
Gosh, that's funny. That's exactly what I RIAA to do too. Stop spending time and money on legislation to protect your profit and come up with a product and price scheme that people actually want to pay.
A steaming cup of soykaf would be real wiz right now.
Non-profit radio stations (such as college radio) pay a set fee to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC every year for the right to broadcast works by their artists. AFAIK, BMI is the only one which requires you to submit log sheets (randomly selected 3 days' worth, once a year).
Almost all college radio stations submit at least their weekly top 30 songs to the College Music Journal, because if you're not listed in there, labels and distributors (for very small labels) are far less likely to send you music (and posters, and Weezer pocket protectors, and...).
The parent post is correct: it's mainly the logging requirements that will be the issue. Crap like requiring a "unique identifier" and the listener's time zone means that you can't have a directory like shoutcast where people just click on the streams and listen; you've got to get them to fill out forms at your site EVERY TIME. This is terrible, and wrong; even if we're going with the "pay per listener per song" crud, as long as I dutifully keep track of the time period each listener tuned in, I shouldn't have to say anything else. That's a strain on the listener and the station, and an invasion of the listener's privacy.
I plan on writing (Free) software to do whatever it takes to stay around (see my
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.