The Sound of Silence
At issue: new royalties proposed by the record industry and accepted by the US Copyright Office will make internet radio more expensive than terrestrial radio -- and more expensive than satellite radio.
The ruling is not only avaricious, it has backdated royalty bills from 15 July 2007 to 1 January 2006.
The source of this decision is a little-known group, the three-man Copyright Royalty Board, which was launched in January 2006. The charge for the three men -- James Scott Sledge, Stanley C. Wisniewski and William J. Roberts -- is to "permit qualified parties to use multiple copyrighted works without obtaining separate licenses from each copyright owner."
In April, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced the Internet Radio Equality Act of 2007 with the explicit goal of vacating the CRB decision. Then in May, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sam Brownback (R-KS) did the same thing in the Senate with S 1353. There has been no action in either chamber.
As I wrote in April:
BetaNews estimates that online webcasting leader AOL Radio may receive a bill for copyright holders' royalties retroactive to 2006 amounting to $23.7 million, payable to a collective representing the US recording industry... This while the world's three major copyright holders' groups - ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC - collectively charge terrestrial broadcast radio stations $972 per year per station, for the rights to broadcast exactly the same music to an equivalent or larger audience.
But that's not all. This is an industry with dirty hands.
In March, Clear Channel Communications Inc., CBS Radio, Entercom Communications Corp. and Citadel Broadcasting Corp. tentatively agreed to pay the government $12.5 million ... aimed at curbing the seemingly undying practice known as "payola."
Copyright Royalty Board
The CRB is a new entity -- enabled by the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-419) and finetuned by the Copyright Royalty Judges Program Technical Corrections Act (P.L. 109-303).
Today's legislation seems largely symbolic. The enabling legislation overwhelmingly passed in the House, 406-0, in March 2004 and in the Senate, by unanimous consent, in October 2004. The House bill was sponsored by Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) with two co-sponsors: Rep Howard Berman (D-CA) and Rep John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI).
Smith's 2004 re-election bid was underwritten by Clear Channel Communications, Sony Corp of America, Time Warner and Viacom Inc. He also introduced controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act legislation in April 2006.
If Internet radio -- which has been cited by the broadcast industry as justification for merger/acquisitions -- is important to you, then call or write your Senators and Representative and express your support for HR 2060 and S1353.
The clock is ticking, and Congress is sitting on its hands.
Posted at 00.01 Pacific