Internet radio dealt severe blow as Copyright Board rejects appeal

Internet radio dealt severe blow as Copyright Board rejects appeal

arstechnica.com

A panel of judges at the Copyright Royalty Board has denied a request from the NPR and a number of other webcasters to reconsider a March ruling that would force Internet radio services to pay crippling royalties. The panel's ruling reaffirmed the original CRB decision in every respect, with the exception of how the royalties will be calculated. Instead of charging a royalty for each time a song is heard by a listener online, Internet broadcasters will be able pay royalties based on average...

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Hi, it's Tim from Pandora,

I'm writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, DC to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites like Pandora. The new royalty rates are irrationally high, more than four times what satellite radio pays and broadcast radio doesn't pay these at all. Left unchanged, these new royalties will kill every Internet radio site, including Pandora.

In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition, a group that includes listeners, artists, labels and webcasters. I hope that you will consider joining us.

Please sign our petition urging your Congressional representative to act to save Internet radio: capwiz.com

Please feel free to forward this link/email to your friends - the more petitioners we can get, the better.

Understand that we are fully supportive of paying royalties to the artists whose music we play, and have done so since our inception. As a former touring musician myself, I'm no stranger to the challenges facing working musicians. The issue we have with the recent ruling is that it puts the cost of streaming far out of the range of ANY webcaster's business potential.

I hope you'll take just a few minutes to sign our petition - it WILL make a difference. As a young industry, we do not have the lobbying power of the RIAA. You, our listeners, are by far our biggest and most influential allies.

As always, and now more than ever, thank you for your support.

arstechnica.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

What legal branch is this CRB thing in?
Who appoint these judges?
Who gave them a mandate to pass rulings?
Who are they to state what the say is law?

I'd really like to know, because as far as I know, even the RIAA and MIAA have had to go trough actual US courts to get what they wanted (although they have tried to nazi alot of people into paying them by only threatening legal action)

So, who are these corporate nazi's that aparantly can create laws and pass rulings?

[edit on 17/4/07 by thematrix]

I listen to Pandora Internet radio almost daily. It's a fantastic service that I highly recommend to anyone. Imagine being able to tell the radio DJ that you don't want to hear a certain song ever again, or that you wish they would play a certain song more often. Or hey what if they would play your favorite country artist along with the Beetles. All this is possible with Internet radio.

Once again organizations using outdated consumer models are trying to stop progress because they believe it cuts profit from their bottom line. This is all about power. They want to be in control of what you hear and what stations play. Please support Internet radio if you can. I'd personally appreciate it.

so do this ruling also apply to broadcast radio stations that also put their stuff out on their websites?

ive listened to a lot of radio on the web from local stations

Originally posted by thematrix
What legal branch is this CRB thing in?
Who appoint these judges?
Who gave them a mandate to pass rulings?
Who are they to state what the say is law?

Copyright Royalty Board (CRB)

With the enactment of the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-419) on Nov. 30, 2004, the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) system that had been part of the Copyright Office since 1993 is being phased out. The Act replaced CARP (which itself replaced the CRT in 1993) with a system of three Copyright Royalty Judges (CRJs), who will determine rates and terms for the copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the Copyright Office. The CRJs will be full-time employees in the Library who will be appointed for six-year terms with an opportunity for reappointment. However, the first three judges shall serve two-, four- and six-year terms in order to establish a cycle that avoids replacing all three CRJs at the same time. www.copyright.gov...

So, who are these corporate nazi's that aparantly can create laws and pass rulings?

As noted above they are not corporate suits but full-time employees of the Library of Congress, appointed by the Librarian of Congress.

a) Appointment.— The Librarian of Congress shall appoint 3 full-time Copyright Royalty Judges, and shall appoint 1 of the 3 as the Chief Copyright Royalty Judge. The Librarian shall make appointments to such positions after consultation with the Register of Copyrights.
(b) Functions.— Subject to the provisions of this chapter, the functions of the Copyright Royalty Judges shall be as follows:
(1) To make determinations and adjustments of reasonable terms and rates of royalty payments as provided in sections 112 (e), 114, 115, 116, 118, 119 and 1004. The rates applicable under sections 114 (f)(1)(B), 115, and 116 shall be calculated to achieve the following objectives:
(A) To maximize the availability of creative works to the public.
(B) To afford the copyright owner a fair return for his or her creative work and the copyright user a fair income under existing economic conditions.
(C) To reflect the relative roles of the copyright owner and the copyright user in the product made available to the public with respect to relative creative contribution, technological contribution, capital investment, cost, risk, and contribution to the opening of new markets for creative expression and media for their communication.
(D) To minimize any disruptive impact on the structure of the industries involved and on generally prevailing industry practices. www.law.cornell.edu...

As far as I can determine from the wording and impact of their ruling, they have over-reached their authority, in that they have totally and irrevocably invalidated Section 1 of the the Code authorizing their appointment. Sign the petition and write or call your congressman/senator and let's get this ruling overturned.

Another Attack on freedom. Plain and simple.

Thanks for bringing this to our attention, I visited the side.

I see no fairness in any of the actions of these appointees toward internet radio.

As stormrider posted the job of the Library of Congress had over step their authority, very interesting that we do not get to know what is going on in Washington as a whole, this issues will affect us as internet supporters.

I see this whole issue as everything that comes from Washington, just like our politicians this so call Copyright Royalty Judges can be bought by any lobbyist.

What a shame.

Don't forget this either....

FCC's Copps Worried About TV Transition

FCC Commissioner Michael Copps on Tuesday called for greater efforts to educate the public about a government-mandated switch-over to digital television signals in two years.

Forcing DRM down your throat by tricking you into thinking that the quality increase will be worth giving up most of the functionality you've enjoyed since the VCR came out.

Are we really seeing the creation of a Fascist media empire? Will Government follow shortly after?

[edit on 17-4-2007 by sardion2000]

They've got my support.

As a musician, I know that internet radio is an untapped resource for local bands. That gives us an oppurtunity to get our music out to people that normally would not be able to hear it by coming to the shows.

Keep Internet radio free!

Then people like myself listen to new artists and old ones. Half my I-tunes collection is from songs I never would have came by on FM radio or any where else for that matter.

I went and sent letters to My represenatives!

I just don`t get the RIAA.

I signed on with Pandora about 6 months ago. Since then, I`ve ordered no less than 50 CDS from artists I discovered through their service.

If Pandora goes, that`s 8-10 CDs a month I won`t likely be buying.

Hmmm..... I think I`ll spin an e-mail off to amazon.com about this.

In the meantime, Rory Gallhager radio...



[edit on 17-4-2007 by vox2442]

man that just gives the masses even more of a reason to download free music via P2P - take internet radio away from us, and what do you think we'll do?

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.



[edit on 4/17/2007 by damajikninja]

I just picture some 60-70 year old white guys sitting around with zero clue of what the internet even is deciding these things. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling I am more right

Originally posted by Valdimer
They've got my support.

As a musician, I know that internet radio is an untapped resource for local bands. That gives us an oppurtunity to get our music out to people that normally would not be able to hear it by coming to the shows.

Exactly, its free advertising and exposure but the morons at the RIAA think people are just recording all the streams instead of paying for CDs.

Next up, suing shops or restaurants for royalties if they dare to play the radio or music on their sound system.

Did you also know musical instrument shops have to pay the RIAA and co money in case someone plays a copyrighted riff while trying and instrument because it counts as a public performance?

These people havent seen a penny from me in 10 years so Im doing all I can.

How can an American court make a decision for the entirety of the world's internet?

Correct me if i'm wrong, but the internet is owned by no one person, it is a right and property of the entire world... so why does America get to choose what is played on it?...

If I'm not mistaken this ruling is only for internet radio stations which are based in the United States.

As a daily Pandora listener, I am horrified by the idea of internet radio going extinct. I will do everything I can to prolong the beautiful adaptability that can only be offered online.

I have sent a fax and an email to Senators Casey and Spectre, as well as Representative Gerlach.

I urge everyone here to contact their government representatives to help stick up for the music.

Stick up for the little guys!!!

TJ 11240

The music industry is so paranoid, and so far behind technology it is ridiculous!

They've only just started debating removing DRM from purchased music, 8 years after the original idea was attacked. Piracy still continued, regardless.

Hasn't the music industry yet learned that if a pirate wants an illegal copy of something, they'll get it anyway??

By hiking up the costs of music to legit internet radio stations will have the same effect - that is, p****** off the legit consumer, whilst pirate internet radio plays on.

Why do they think that putting all these online services out of business, is good for business??? What is it exactly that the music industry gains or loses from electronic transactions??? I only see gain for them.

I'd just like to say that I went to the capwiz.com website and signed the petition. Watch out Boxer, Fienstien and Hunter you better get on the bandwagon !!! Serious - STOP CORPORATE GREED NOW !! Wooooo !