Court Rules AM/FM Simulcasters Must Pay Royalties (Internet)

[phoebe]

http://dc.internet.com/news/article.php/3096481

snip

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has upheld a ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office requiring radio stations that stream broadcasts over the Internet must pay royalties to recording companies and artists as well as to composers. Traditional over-the-air radio stations only pay royalties to songwriters.

While AM and FM stations have long enjoyed the royalty exemptions to artists and labels on the premise that radio airplay promotes sales, Congress decided in passing the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) that Internet-only radio stations would not have the exemptions

snip
The Copyright Office ruled that the royalty payment provisions applied equally to webcasters and stations simulcasting over the Internet, which prompted an appeal from station owners and the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The broadcasters maintained Congress meant the DMCA to apply only to downloading services, although the language of the DMCA is vague, at best, on that point.

snip
"NAB disagrees with the court opinion, which we believe serves to stifle efforts by hometown radio stations to better serve listeners. We will be exploring all of our legal and legislative options to overturn this decision, which we believe misinterprets the intent of Congress," the group said in a statement.

[ursacorwin]

1. i hope everyone understands what this means.

last time i heard about this subject, it was from the web sites of some affected stations. bascially, not only will they have to pay in the future, but also for those materials covered under this act used in the past. that means that anything DemocracyNow-type stations have used to illustrate their points, they have to give money to the same people they were criticizing!

needless to say, you can forget about all those little stations playing liberal news- they are literally bankrupted by this decision.

freedom of speech, anyone?

[mainegreen]

2. Our local station

Our local college station is ignoring this rule.

Go (insert call letters here)!

[shirlden]

3. This only applies to music

Station have always paid a royalty for the music they play. The only difference now is that they may have to pay more. However, the article did not spell this out. It may only mean that what they do pay will be divided more ways.

:kick:

[AP]

7. Democracy Now isn't criticizing musicians and composers.

Incidentally, NPR doesn't have to pay any royalities for music. I suspect, but am not usre, that this is an exemption for public, non-commercial brodcasters. So, it might be the case that Democracy Now pays no royalties for music anyway.

Everything else Democracy Now uses isn't copyright protected. It's exmepted under the newsworthiness exemption (fair use).

[electricmonk]

4. What about overseas stations?

I listen to simulcast stations from Russia, Australia, Croatia and others all the time because they play way better music than any US based station does.

For the life of me I can't see how listening to internet radio is any different than listening to the radio in my car or home stereo.

[htuttle]

5. Depends on the country's treaties with the US

I know that when the first crackdown on internet radio happened, many of my favorite stations moved their streams offshore (and many more never came back).

[Scottie72]

6. A few years ago....

I used to stream radio stations on my computer at work and then one day it just ended due to something like this. I then went to my favourite Canadian station (I used to live in Buffalo NY and enjoyed receiving all the Canadian stations along with Canadian TV channels) My favourite radio station was 102.1 CFNY "The Edge" from Toronto. I am able to stream that station on my computer and quite often will listen to it.

[Zhade]

8. Won't this hurt Clear Channel-type stations, too?

It's one horrifically bad ruling, no question. But isn't this going to cause 'mainstream' stations harm, too? Clear Channel won't mind paying extra for its web side of promoting facist thinki--er, I mean, "playing the hits of today and yesterday"?