Post by Lloyd Dev on Jun 10, 2007 15:58:25 GMT -5
LEGAL MATTERS: RATES UP FOR GRABS
May 19, 2007
Internet radio will shut down July 15: All small webcasters and most large webcasters will go broke, and it's because the Copyright Royalty Board set new royalty rates that webcasters must pay to labels and musicians to stream their recordings. This is the message a new coalition called SaveNetRadio shared with musicians at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this month to gain support for a federal bill that would throw out the new rates.
Is it true that webcasters will go out of business when 2006 royalties are due in July? Are musicians or giant digital media companies the real beneficiaries of the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would "nullify" the CRB decision? How much of the information that webcasters and other groups share with others is fact and how much is one-sided advocacy? At the root of these issues is an even more pressing question: Who's informing indie labels, producers and musicians about decisions that affect their livelihoods?
The most striking—and impressive—aspect of the SaveNetRadio movement is how quickly and effectively a digital media trade group and webcasters got their message out to thousands of influential consumers, artists, decision-makers and legislators after the CRB rejected webcasters' proposed royalty rates (Billboard, March 24)—and how groups formed to represent professional artists were caught off guard.
As of May 1, more than 5,000 artists sent letters through the SaveNetRadio Web site to their congressional representatives, says Jake Ward, a spokesman for the coalition. That was before the group hit New Orleans and before presenting their positions to nearly 100 legislative staff members. Webcasters like Live365 have prominently posted messages on their sites urging their listeners—nearly a million—to oppose the royalty rates by clicking on a link.
By May 4, co-sponsors for the bill (H.R. 2060), introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., reached 42.
The decision on new royalty rates "was a win to celebrate," says one source, who represents professional artists. "Who would expect artists to go to the other side? We didn't have a PR campaign ready."
Musicians' union AFM has directly contacted its members about the issue. As of May 4, more than 1,600 AFM members have written Congress in support of the decision, the union reports. At press time, SoundExchange and vocalists' union AFTRA posted support for the CRB decision on their Web sites; the Recording Academy was considering writing a letter to members; and the Recording Artists' Coalition was in the process of preparing letters for its members. A couple of trade groups are quietly beginning to lobby against the bill.
So who is SaveNetRadio? It doesn't exactly say on the site: "Instead of relying on lawyers filing appeals in the CRB and the courts, the SaveNetRadio Coalition has been formed to represent every webcaster, every Net Radio listener, and every artist who enjoys and benefits from this medium." And it doesn't state whether the artists are professionals, who depend on royalties to pay for their basic needs, or artists who enjoy creating music but work in other professions.
The domain name registration shows that the savenetradio.org domain name was created March 3, less than 24 hours after the CRB decision on March 2. It is registered to the Digital Media Assn.
SaveNetRadio's Ward confirms that DiMA, one of 24 parties in the CRB proceeding representing webcasters, initiated the grass-roots campaign and paid the seed money for it. DiMA's board of directors are AOL, Apple, Live 365, RealNetworks and Yahoo.
SoundExchange, the sole party in the CRB proceeding representing copyright owners, musicians and vocalists, doesn't have a paid lobbyist. Its executive director meets with congressional staff. Its 18-member board of directors are six representatives for the major labels and the RIAA; two for indie labels; two for indie music trade groups; two artist managers; five from artist organizations, their trade groups and their unions; and one business manager. Indie music and/or artist representatives combine to control two-thirds of the board votes.
Lobbying for legislation, like representing a party in litigation, is all about advocating for one side of an issue. After all, millions of dollars and livelihoods are often at stake. Watching the legal and political advocacy campaigns over webcaster royalty rates is watching democracy in action.
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Update: Small Webcasters Get A Break In Royalties
May 22, 2007
SoundExchange has offered a deal to small webcasters to lower the royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board's decision in March. The offer would make the rates for streaming sound recordings roughly the same as those set by the Small Webcaster Settlement Act (SWSA), which expired in 2005.
Today's offer is in response to a request from a House Judiciary Subcommittee for SoundExchange to initiate good faith private negotiations with small commercial and noncommercial webcasters with the shared goal of ensuring their continued operations and viability.
SoundExchange is proposing that the royalties be based on a percentage of revenue at the rates under the SWSA: small webcasters would pay royalties equal to 10% of all gross revenue up to $250,000, and 12% for all gross revenue above that amount. But only those webcasters that generate less than a specified amount of revenue and less than a certain amount of usage will be eligible for this lower rate. This is to ensure that only those webcasters of a certain size, who are forming or strengthening their businesses, get this break, SoundExchange reports.
Rates set by the CRB require all commercial webcasters -- big and small -- to pay a penny-rate per stream plus a minimum of $500 per channel.
"Artists and labels are offering a below-market rate to subsidize small webcasters because Congress has made it clear that this is a policy it desires to advance, at least for the next few years," says John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange. "We look at it as artists and labels doing their part to help small operators get a stronger foothold."
"The net result of this proposal is that small webcasters would be guaranteed no increase in royalty payments for 13 years, from 1998-2010," says Michael Huppe, general counsel for SoundExchange.
In order for the process to work, small webcasters must register with the Copyright Office, comply with all reporting requirements to SoundExchange and not avoid paying royalties that are lawfully owed, says Simson. "The artists and labels are acting in good faith today, giving small webcasters a break. In return they expect the integrity of their music and their copyrights to be respected. That includes proper tracking and reporting of how their music is used, and that they are properly compensated."
Meanwhile, the SaveNetRadio coalition -- a group formed to solicit support against the recent CRB decision -- issued a statement rejecting what it called a "flawed offer."
"The proposal made by SoundExchange today would throw 'large webcasters' under the bus and end any 'small' webcaster's hopes of one day becoming big," SaveNetRadio spokesperson Jake Ward said in the statement. "Under government-set revenue caps, webcasters will invest less, innovate less and promote less. Under this proposal, Internet radio would become a lousy long-term business, unable to compete effectively against big broadcast and big satellite radio -- artists, webcasters, and listeners be damned."
Additionally, the group said that even the largest of Internet radio operators, such as Yahoo and AOL, should be considered small broadcasters when compared to today's terrestrial radio operators.
May 19, 2007
Internet radio will shut down July 15: All small webcasters and most large webcasters will go broke, and it's because the Copyright Royalty Board set new royalty rates that webcasters must pay to labels and musicians to stream their recordings. This is the message a new coalition called SaveNetRadio shared with musicians at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival this month to gain support for a federal bill that would throw out the new rates.
Is it true that webcasters will go out of business when 2006 royalties are due in July? Are musicians or giant digital media companies the real beneficiaries of the Internet Radio Equality Act, which would "nullify" the CRB decision? How much of the information that webcasters and other groups share with others is fact and how much is one-sided advocacy? At the root of these issues is an even more pressing question: Who's informing indie labels, producers and musicians about decisions that affect their livelihoods?
The most striking—and impressive—aspect of the SaveNetRadio movement is how quickly and effectively a digital media trade group and webcasters got their message out to thousands of influential consumers, artists, decision-makers and legislators after the CRB rejected webcasters' proposed royalty rates (Billboard, March 24)—and how groups formed to represent professional artists were caught off guard.
As of May 1, more than 5,000 artists sent letters through the SaveNetRadio Web site to their congressional representatives, says Jake Ward, a spokesman for the coalition. That was before the group hit New Orleans and before presenting their positions to nearly 100 legislative staff members. Webcasters like Live365 have prominently posted messages on their sites urging their listeners—nearly a million—to oppose the royalty rates by clicking on a link.
By May 4, co-sponsors for the bill (H.R. 2060), introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Donald Manzullo, R-Ill., reached 42.
The decision on new royalty rates "was a win to celebrate," says one source, who represents professional artists. "Who would expect artists to go to the other side? We didn't have a PR campaign ready."
Musicians' union AFM has directly contacted its members about the issue. As of May 4, more than 1,600 AFM members have written Congress in support of the decision, the union reports. At press time, SoundExchange and vocalists' union AFTRA posted support for the CRB decision on their Web sites; the Recording Academy was considering writing a letter to members; and the Recording Artists' Coalition was in the process of preparing letters for its members. A couple of trade groups are quietly beginning to lobby against the bill.
So who is SaveNetRadio? It doesn't exactly say on the site: "Instead of relying on lawyers filing appeals in the CRB and the courts, the SaveNetRadio Coalition has been formed to represent every webcaster, every Net Radio listener, and every artist who enjoys and benefits from this medium." And it doesn't state whether the artists are professionals, who depend on royalties to pay for their basic needs, or artists who enjoy creating music but work in other professions.
The domain name registration shows that the savenetradio.org domain name was created March 3, less than 24 hours after the CRB decision on March 2. It is registered to the Digital Media Assn.
SaveNetRadio's Ward confirms that DiMA, one of 24 parties in the CRB proceeding representing webcasters, initiated the grass-roots campaign and paid the seed money for it. DiMA's board of directors are AOL, Apple, Live 365, RealNetworks and Yahoo.
SoundExchange, the sole party in the CRB proceeding representing copyright owners, musicians and vocalists, doesn't have a paid lobbyist. Its executive director meets with congressional staff. Its 18-member board of directors are six representatives for the major labels and the RIAA; two for indie labels; two for indie music trade groups; two artist managers; five from artist organizations, their trade groups and their unions; and one business manager. Indie music and/or artist representatives combine to control two-thirds of the board votes.
Lobbying for legislation, like representing a party in litigation, is all about advocating for one side of an issue. After all, millions of dollars and livelihoods are often at stake. Watching the legal and political advocacy campaigns over webcaster royalty rates is watching democracy in action.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: Small Webcasters Get A Break In Royalties
May 22, 2007
SoundExchange has offered a deal to small webcasters to lower the royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board's decision in March. The offer would make the rates for streaming sound recordings roughly the same as those set by the Small Webcaster Settlement Act (SWSA), which expired in 2005.
Today's offer is in response to a request from a House Judiciary Subcommittee for SoundExchange to initiate good faith private negotiations with small commercial and noncommercial webcasters with the shared goal of ensuring their continued operations and viability.
SoundExchange is proposing that the royalties be based on a percentage of revenue at the rates under the SWSA: small webcasters would pay royalties equal to 10% of all gross revenue up to $250,000, and 12% for all gross revenue above that amount. But only those webcasters that generate less than a specified amount of revenue and less than a certain amount of usage will be eligible for this lower rate. This is to ensure that only those webcasters of a certain size, who are forming or strengthening their businesses, get this break, SoundExchange reports.
Rates set by the CRB require all commercial webcasters -- big and small -- to pay a penny-rate per stream plus a minimum of $500 per channel.
"Artists and labels are offering a below-market rate to subsidize small webcasters because Congress has made it clear that this is a policy it desires to advance, at least for the next few years," says John Simson, executive director of SoundExchange. "We look at it as artists and labels doing their part to help small operators get a stronger foothold."
"The net result of this proposal is that small webcasters would be guaranteed no increase in royalty payments for 13 years, from 1998-2010," says Michael Huppe, general counsel for SoundExchange.
In order for the process to work, small webcasters must register with the Copyright Office, comply with all reporting requirements to SoundExchange and not avoid paying royalties that are lawfully owed, says Simson. "The artists and labels are acting in good faith today, giving small webcasters a break. In return they expect the integrity of their music and their copyrights to be respected. That includes proper tracking and reporting of how their music is used, and that they are properly compensated."
Meanwhile, the SaveNetRadio coalition -- a group formed to solicit support against the recent CRB decision -- issued a statement rejecting what it called a "flawed offer."
"The proposal made by SoundExchange today would throw 'large webcasters' under the bus and end any 'small' webcaster's hopes of one day becoming big," SaveNetRadio spokesperson Jake Ward said in the statement. "Under government-set revenue caps, webcasters will invest less, innovate less and promote less. Under this proposal, Internet radio would become a lousy long-term business, unable to compete effectively against big broadcast and big satellite radio -- artists, webcasters, and listeners be damned."
Additionally, the group said that even the largest of Internet radio operators, such as Yahoo and AOL, should be considered small broadcasters when compared to today's terrestrial radio operators.