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Group of webcasters sue RIAA

28 August 2003 15:46 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny | 2 comments

The webcasting a.k.a. Net radio issue is back in headlines again. Group of small net radio operators, the Webcaster Alliance, has sued RIAA over the webcasting royalty issue.

The whole mess, that has taken years to solve, was created by the U.S. Congress in 1998 by setting up a royalty fee for Net radio broadcasts (while traditional radio stations in the U.S. don't pay any royalties whatsoever). The mistake they made was that they didn't specify how much the royalty fee should be.

Anyway, the last decision that was made about the royalty rates was made after talks between RIAA and small group of webcasters, most notably including all the biggest webcasters, that set the current royalty rates. Current system is that webcasters pay royalties based on certain percent of their revenue (with an exception of large webcasters who pay fixed price per each broadcasted minute).

Now the Webcaster Alliance has sued RIAA because it claims that RIAA has refused to negotiate with them for alternative royalty rates and claims that the group of webcasters that negotiated the current royalty system didn't represent webcasters in general, but only a group of specific type of webcasters.

Source: News.com

Permalink to this article

Webcasters and recording industry agreed over royalty rates (12 February 2004)

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Toiletman (Senior Member) 30 August 2003 11:09
I'm backing you. Anything to put the RIAA in deep shit or annoy them, I'm with ya. When you are on your deathbed, you will wonder, "Did I waste my life? Was it worth spending all that time on that?" Do not despair, no one has wasted their life. After all, you can only waste something if you throw it away. And you can't throw life away. [ + quote]
vudoo (Member) 3 September 2003 21:56
I agree. Time that people stand firm. We must make a stance. I say in order for the RIAA to get respect from consummers that they have to earn it and so far I don't see that happening. Voodoohippie [ + quote]