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Traditional radio stations have to pay royalties for Net streaming

23 October 2003 15:23 by Petteri "dRD" Pyyny | 5 comments

Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia has upheld Copyright Office's earlier decision that traditional radio stations have to pay royalties for streaming their traditional radio broadcasts over the Net (process is called simulcasting).

Historically, American radio stations have had weird exception from royalties -- they don't have to pay anything for artists or record labels (they pay for songwriters though) for playing their music on radio, unlike most other radio stations in the world. And to complicate this issue, American Net radio stations have to pay such royalties. Now, the court fight was about this exemption rule and about applying it to simulcasting. Radio stations argued that their material that they air through radio-waves, is exempt from royalties even if broadcasted over the Net. This obviously puts smaller, Net-only broadcasters in losing side as they need to cough up to RIAA every time they play music on their station, while benemoths such as Clear Channel (world's largest radio station owner) don't have such costs involved.

"The DMCA's silence on AM/FM webcasting gives us no affirmative grounds to believe that Congress intended to expand the protections contemplated," the Philadelphia appeals decision reads. "The exemptions the (DMCA) afforded to radio broadcasters were specifically intended to protect only traditional radio broadcasting, and did not contemplate protecting AM/FM webcasting."

National Association of Broadcasters, representing the traditional radio stations, said that they will appeal the process and try to bring it to Supreme Court.

Source: Internet.com

Permalink to this article

$1.7bn simulcasting deal announced (18 October 2004)

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

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Discuss this article!
GrayArea (Member) 24 October 2003 10:46
Can someone name ONE thing that the (US) federal government has done during this administration that has NOT favored large corporations and the ultra wealthy over small business and the general public? We mustn't lower ourselves to the level of those we loathe, lest we become loathsome ourselves. [ + quote]
Nephilim (Moderator) 24 October 2003 11:29
A resounding NO. I never killed anybody that didn't deserve it. [ + quote]
vkem (Inactive) 24 October 2003 11:52
George W. Bush has his hands put on this thing! [ + quote]
GrayArea (Member) 24 October 2003 12:24
I don't know if one would consider the copyright office to be a part of the federal government (they're not a part of the executive or legislative branches anyway) but it seems they are trying to do the right thing, or at least level the playing field. We mustn't lower ourselves to the level of those we loathe, lest we become loathsome ourselves. [ + quote]
vudoo (Member) 28 October 2003 15:18
If net radio is forced to pay royalties and Radio stations that simulcast over the net have to pay bug bucks it could mean that broadcast Radio would gradually die because there are lots of people who use their computer to listen to music. So with that in mind we should be able to listen to Radio stations all across the country and world if they broadcast music. The RIAA gets paid when the stations buy the music and besides the bands get a huge promotion when their music is played over the net in the first place. I can see the day when FREE Radio is no more. Voodoohippie [ + quote]