Aereo Ruling Could Impact Pandora

itwbennett writes "Aereo's court battles are far from over, to be sure, but the ruling earlier this month that the TV streaming service doesn't violate copyright laws must have the folks at music streaming service Pandora shaking their heads, wondering why they're still paying royalties that currently consume more than half their revenues. The implications of Aereo's business model are far-reaching and may ultimately 'be resolved by Congress, just as it did when cable first came on the scene, by passing legislation to redefine a public performance,' writes broadcast industry attorney David Oxenford."

Comments

Pandora needs to change technology to win.

[duckgod]

If Pandora buys a cd(digital music would probably have to wait for another legal victory) and only streams it out to 1 user at a time then I could see this ruling helping Pandora. I doubt this is close to the black magic media distribution that Pandora employs currently. Math is hard but I am thinking it would take a while for this system to be more profitable then the current licensing model.

Re: Pandora needs to change technology to win.

[cpt kangarooski]

No, that would still be public performance. It's defined in the Copyright Act, and includes performances to only one person at a time:

To perform or display a work âoepubliclyâ meansâ"
(1) to perform or display it at a place open to the public or at any place where a substantial number of persons outside of a normal circle of a family and its social acquaintances is gathered; or
(2) to transmit or otherwise communicate a performance or display of the work to a place specified by clause (1) or to the public, by means of any device or process, whether the members of the public capable of receiving the performance or display receive it in the same place or in separate places and at the same time or at different times.

Instead there'd have to buy one CD per user who wanted to listen.

They could save momey by renting them to users. Except that you can't rent music CDs as a rule due to an exception to first sale ( 17 USC 109 (b)(1)(a) ), they might need to create a complicated system of selling and repurchasing discs on demand which would probably not convince a court that it was something other than rental.

Re:Pandora needs to change technology to win.

[The Mighty Buzzard]

Or a $20 50mW FM transmitter, a stripped bit of wire to use as an antenna, and a faraday cage for each user's personal "station". That would put them pretty much exactly where aero is. There are no licensing requirements for FM stations that broadcast under 200 feet in the US and the faraday cage could drop the broadcast range to milimeters. They could even have the transmit/receive antennas on the same circuit board.

Re:Playing back a recording

[PRMan]

Yeah. Because it's for educational purposes, which is specifically exempted from copyright.

Re:Playing back a recording

[MightyYar]

By the way, here's a 5-part series on how simple copyright is in education.