The voluntary royalty deal between Yahoo! and the RIAA that the Librarian of Congress announced as his template for the entire industry last week was a deal crafted by Yahoo! to shut out small webcasters and decrease competition, Broadcast.com founder and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban revealed to RAIN on Friday.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Copyright Office 37 CFR Part 261 [Docket No. 2000-9 CARP DTRA 1&2] Determination of Reasonable Rates and Terms for the Digital Performance of Sound Recordings and Ephemeral Recordings AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress. ACTION: Final rule and order.
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Copyright Office
37 CFR Part 261
[Docket No. 2000-9 CARP DTRA 1&2]
Determination of Reasonable Rates and Terms for the Digital Performance of Sound Recordings and Ephemeral Recordings
AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
ACTION: Final rule and order.
The closure of Yahoo Radio comes after a closely watched ruling last week from the Librarian of Congress on Webcasting royalty rates. The ruling has been widely criticized by small Webcasters, many of which say it is too high and will force them to close. Sohn said Yahoo Radio, which served as an aggregation point for offline radio stations, was unaffected by the royalty rate decision.
The closure of Yahoo Radio comes after a closely watched ruling last week from the Librarian of Congress on Webcasting royalty rates. The ruling has been widely criticized by small Webcasters, many of which say it is too high and will force them to close.
Sohn said Yahoo Radio, which served as an aggregation point for offline radio stations, was unaffected by the royalty rate decision.
Federal copyright regulators on Thursday set new royalty rates for online radio companies, halving previously proposed fees that had drawn bitter criticism from Net companies.
The deal was seen as a necessary trade-off by an industry with little influence, even though conventional radio broadcasters have never paid a royalty for using sound recordings because of the promotional value to record labels of having their songs played over the air. Like broadcast radio stations, Webcasters also pay about 4 percent of their revenue to compensate composers and music publishers. But the record labels and Internet companies failed to agree to a rate, and the task was handed to an arbitration panel appointed by the Copyright Office last summer. Since many companies had declined to negotiate with the recording industry, its conclusions on a fair rate were based largely on one major deal between Yahoo and the industry's trade association.
The deal was seen as a necessary trade-off by an industry with little influence, even though conventional radio broadcasters have never paid a royalty for using sound recordings because of the promotional value to record labels of having their songs played over the air. Like broadcast radio stations, Webcasters also pay about 4 percent of their revenue to compensate composers and music publishers.
But the record labels and Internet companies failed to agree to a rate, and the task was handed to an arbitration panel appointed by the Copyright Office last summer. Since many companies had declined to negotiate with the recording industry, its conclusions on a fair rate were based largely on one major deal between Yahoo and the industry's trade association.
Just as broadcast "deregulation" virtually wiped out small radio stations, the LoC's new rates ensure that webcast survivors will belong to very wealthy companies who can afford them. Clearly, that's now government policy, summed up by the LoC's rationalization: "...many Webcasters are currently generating very little revenue, [so] a percentage-of-revenue rate would require copyright owners to allow extensive use of their property with little or no compensation." As I've pointed out many times, protecting "copyright owners" means protecting big business, not artists. That the Librarian of Congress views songs solely as property, discarding their status as culture, is even more appalling.
In a decision criticized by both Webcasters and the recording industry, a government official Thursday ruled that Internet radio stations must pay royalty rates that are 50 percent less than proposed by a federal panel. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has ruled that all Webcasters will have to pay 0.07 cents per song per performance, compared with the 0.14 cents per song per performance recommended by a federal arbitration panel in February.
In a decision criticized by both Webcasters and the recording industry, a government official Thursday ruled that Internet radio stations must pay royalty rates that are 50 percent less than proposed by a federal panel.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington has ruled that all Webcasters will have to pay 0.07 cents per song per performance, compared with the 0.14 cents per song per performance recommended by a federal arbitration panel in February.
The new rates , issued by Librarian of Congress James Billington, require webcasters to pay record labels .07 cents each time a song is streamed live and .02 cents for archived or simulcasted streams. Temporary copies, such as ripped copies of CDs that are used to create the digital streams, will cost companies 8.8 percent of their entire royalty fee. The rates, while lower than previous recommendations, did little to soothe webcasters who continue to claim that such high rates will force fees that can't be recouped.
The new rates , issued by Librarian of Congress James Billington, require webcasters to pay record labels .07 cents each time a song is streamed live and .02 cents for archived or simulcasted streams. Temporary copies, such as ripped copies of CDs that are used to create the digital streams, will cost companies 8.8 percent of their entire royalty fee.
The rates, while lower than previous recommendations, did little to soothe webcasters who continue to claim that such high rates will force fees that can't be recouped.
Digital IP Links Home | Search Links | New Links | Popular Links | Top Rated | Admin Login | Powered by ssLinks v1.22