Congress may loosen noose on internet radio
Bill seeks to reverse Copyright Royalty Board decision
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A bill introduced in Congress today could nullify the new rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) which advocates say would put webcasters out of business.
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.
Advocates have dreaded the CRB ruling, which they say could raise rates between 300 to 1200 per cent for webcasters. Earlier this month, the CRB threw out an appeal by commercial webcasters, National Public Radio and others to review the new rates and postpone a May 15 deadline for the introduction of the royalty schedule.
If passed, today's bill would set new rates at 7.5 per cent of the webcaster's revenue— the same rate paid by satellite radio. Alternatively, webcasters could decide to pay 33 cents per hour of sound recordings transmitted to a single user.
"The illogical and unrealistic royalty rates set by the CRB have placed the future of an entire industry in jeopardy," said Jake Ward of the SaveNetRadio coalition. "This bill is a critical step to preserve this vibrant and growing medium, and to develop a truly level playing field where webcasters can compete with satellite radio."
The bill would also reset royalty rules for non-profit radio such as NPR. Public radio would be required present a report to Congress on how it should determine rates for their internet streaming media. ®
COMMENTS
I don't know if H.R.2060 will work
Ok, H.R 2060 sounds neat and all but after reading what the bill includes I am not so sure it would work....the bill states 7.5% of revenue or $0.33 per listener per hour. If it is a non profit station (which the vast majority are) does that mean we will be forced into the $0.33 category....If a webcaster is forced into the $0.33 category that would bankrupt them anyway.... I based my math on our current overnight average because we just changed streams and we are trying to catch everything up......10 listeners....$0.33 an hour = $3.30 an hour (not bad)---- 24 hours in a day (if you kept only 10 listeners for the entire day and night) that is $79.20 per day.....for a 30 day month that is $2376.00 and for a year that is $28,908.00 that is with only 10 listeners everyday for a year even with only 5 listeners it would be $14,454.00 and acorrding to Arbitron 1 out of 5 people in the US alone listen to Internet Radio and Net Radio is worldwide so lets do a 20 person average.......$57,816 per year......I would like to know if non profits are going to have to pay into one of those categories?
Shoot them!!!!
The only way you can resolve these kinds of issues is to pick up a gun and take care of the problem yourself!
Need more background
Everyone's busy these days, so could we please have some more background information in these articles? I know it takes more time, but I really didn't know about the CRB law in the first place, nor do I know about how webcasters operate well enough to form an opinion - unless you help me out. If you're going to be a news service that informs me, then INFORM me. Thanks.
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