A Reprieve For Net Radio?

Porsupah writes "The Register reports that "Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) and Rep. Don Manzullo (R-IL) have headed the 'Internet Radio Equality Act,' which aims to stop the controversial March 2 decision which puts royalty of a .08 cent per song per listener, retroactively from 2006 to 2010 on internet radio," as imposed by a recent decision from the Copyright Royalty Board. "If passed, today's bill would set new rates at 7.5 percent of the webcaster's revenue — the same rate paid by satellite radio.""

The law requires DRM where possible

[tepples]

how long will it be before people use net radio as a content distribution mechanism with an excuse to get around copyright?

In the United States, the compulsory license for webcasting (17 USC 114) applies only if

(vi) the transmitting entity takes no affirmative steps to cause or induce the making of a phonorecord by the transmission recipient, and if the technology used by the transmitting entity enables the transmitting entity to limit the making by the transmission recipient of phonorecords of the transmission directly in a digital format, the transmitting entity sets such technology to limit such making of phonorecords to the extent permitted by such technology

Re:Good to Hear

[thing12]

Because iPods don't have wifi yet.

It's bigger than an iPod, but a Treo w/PocketTunes can do streaming audio. With Sprint's Unlimited PowerVision plan you get all you can drink music anywhere they have coverage. Carrying only one device is a nice plus too.

Is there still time?

[jddj]

The new rates go into effect May 15 and are expected to instantly bankrupt most small web broadcasters (because they're retroactive to January, 2006).

In the mean time, this bill has to get out of committee, be voted on and passed by the house, get to the president's desk either on its own or tacked on to another bill, and then get signed.

That's a lot to get right fast. And the bill will no doubt face fierce lobbying opposition from the music industry suits trying to get internet radio shut down.

Props to these congressmen for setting up a bill on this, but...we're not there yet.

Great news for non-profits

[traindirector]

This would be a wonderful change for public, non-profit, and college radio stations who broadcast on the airwaves as well as maintain a web stream. While the current web rate per song is pretty bad, it is the requirement that all songs need to be logged that is really making it difficult for these stations to keep their web streams up, since they don't often have the all-digital systems / small libraries of commercial ventures. It is almost as if the current legislation was drafted to prevent these types of stations from (legally) offering their content online.

This would blow away the reporting requirement and most of the fees for these stations. Fees could be easily calculated based on the small amount of revenue the stations generate. My only worry is that this amount might be higher than the per-song rate for commercial stations, and government loves business...

Re:What about Radio

[ps236]

They pay NO performance royalties at all - that's the problem.

Satellite pay 7.5% of revenue as performance royalties
The CRB wanted webcasters to pay around 100-125% of revenue as performance royalties
Radio stations pay 0% as performance royalties.

Let's run a litle calculation.

[LullySing]

--- a snip from savenetradio.org----
On March 2, 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which oversees sound recording royalties paid by Internet radio services, increased Internet radio's royalty burden between 300 and 1200 percent and thereby jeopardized the industry's future.

At the request of the Recording Industry Association of America, the CRB ignored the fact that Internet radio royalties were already double what satellite radio pays, and multiplied the royalties even further. The 2005 royalty rate was 7/100 of a penny per song streamed; the 2010 rate will be 19/100 of a penny per song streamed. And for small webcasters that were able to calculate royalties as a percentage of revenue in 2005 - that option was quashed by the CRB, so small webcasters' royalties will grow exponentially!

Before this ruling was handed down, the vast majority of webcasters were barely making ends meet as Internet radio advertising revenue is just beginning to develop. Without a doubt most Internet radio services will go bankrupt and cease webcasting if this royalty rate is not reversed by the Congress,
----- end snip-----

well, lemme give you an idea, ok ?

Say that you got a small internet radio channel that handles on average 150-200 users per hours ( approx user count for all 24 hours... peaks at 500ish, 10-15 users in the wee hours... so say, for all practical purposes you ot a constant 175 users, k?) . Because you're barely making any money off this thing ( say you're "making" $100-200ish a month after paying for equipment, band, coffee, ramen, etc etc) you had the exemption that made it you paid a fraction of your revenues to the RIAA. But hey, you're still making peanuts here, so it's all good.

Suddenly the rules change. Let's run a quick and dirty calculation on what you suddenly owe the RIAA here...
175 users * 8 songs and hour * 0.0018 $ ( that's per song streamed) = 2.52$ So that's 2 bucks fifty an hour.
multiply by 24 hours, times the number of days in a month ( say 30) and you get.... 1814,40$ that you owe to the RIAA... PER MONTH.

Can you say ouch ? for a guy that was barely making ends meet, and making just enough to take out his girlfriend to a fancy dinner once in a while ( if nothing breaks) you went down to actually owning money for running a small net radio station.

Now you understand why the "percentage of revenues" is something small webcasters want.

Re:Good to Hear

[Constantine XVI]

And assuming you'd rather not pay for Sprint/ATT/Verizon/etc.'s high rates for Internet service and just want to use Wifi, there's an app for the DS called DSOrganize that does internet radio as well. Of course, it requires a cart to run it on (I reccomend the R4 or EZFlashV), and they take uSD cards. I bet the PSP can do something like this as well

Re:retroactively??

[ameoba]

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a law on the books against this [usconstitution.net] already?

Re:Good to Hear

[dantheman82]

There's Rhapsody for that...I've been able to use the 25 free songs streaming per month through them. Listen to pretty much the whole album if you wish...

Here's your link:
http://www.rhapsody.com/lucindawilliams/liveatthef illmore [rhapsody.com]

Re:Good to Hear

[ghuytro]

You can listen to the same music whenever you like? I'd like to hear Lucinda William's "Righteously." The version from "Live at the Filmore", not the studio release. Right now. Where do I tune in to hear that?

I did it in 20 seconds.

Launched Napster and logged into Napster to Go
Searched track "Righteously"
Search result turned up "Righteously [Live (2003/The Fillmore, San Francisco)]"
Clicked play

Thanks for the prod to try this out btw - I hadn't heard the live version of that fabulous song.