Streaming and Copyright Laws/Fees

Ongoing decisions by the Copyright Royalty Board are making it expensive and difficult to provide streaming services.

Details:

To our WFUV online listeners:

We at WFUV have had some hard decisions to make. The recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) to establish a new royalty rate for online streaming of recorded music has sent us - and every other Internet webcaster - to their calculators looking for a way to continue offering online music services.

The royalties are assessed on behalf of performing artists, and they should earn a reasonable payout for their work. But most small webcasters will be driven out of business entirely by this increase, and that wouldn't benefit anyone. Even with the support of our contributing members, it is going to cost us a tremendous amount of money to continue -- the fees are retroactive to the start of 2006, and the rate is twenty times over the previous one.

We have elected to maintain our live music streaming for the immediate future. Live music and talk-based archived programs (like Words & Music from Studio A and Cityscape) fall outside the royalty fees imposed by the CRB. We will continue to offer those, and as many of our other music programs as we can.

We will also continue to work with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio in their efforts to come to a fair agreement.

What can you do? Besides your financial support for our streams, there are organized attempts to channel public opinion on the matter to the Congressional representatives in decision-making positions. Visit SaveNetRadio.org for more information on how you can help to keep music streams on the Internet.

- WFUV General Manager Dr. Ralph Jennings
and your friends at WFUV [email]

p.s. There is more information about how copyright law affects streaming on the Streaming and the DMCA page.

Further News:

On March 19, 2007, NPR, filing on behalf of public radio, asked the Copyright Royalty Board to rehear its decision of March 2 and stated that it will appeal the Board's decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

On April 17, 2007 the CRB rejected all requests by all parties, including National Public Radio (NPR), to rehear aspects of its March decision. This means that changes to the Board's decision can only occur by appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, or by congressional legislative action. NPR, on behalf of public radio and in close cooperation and consultation with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), will proceed with appellate action. NPR is also working to bring this issue to the attention of Congress and to craft legislation that corrects the deficiencies of the Board's decision. This legislative proposal will include a special provision to deal with public radio's unique situation and public service obligations.

On April 26, 2007, The Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060) was introduced in the House of Representatives. The bill would nullify the recent CRB decision, change the general royalty standard for web streaming to match what satellite radio pays, allows for a separate non-profit rate, and makes room for input about the effect of future rulings on the industry.

On May 2, 2007, the CRB moved the due date for payments under the new rates from May 15th to July 15th. This improves the likelihood that Congress could pass legislation before that deadline. SaveNetRadio.org has the full details.

On May 10, 2007, A Senate counterpart to the Internet Radio Equality Act (H.R. 2060) was introduced with bipartisan sponsorship. The House bill has over 60 co-sponsors at this point. You can contact your Representative or Senator to share your opinions via email.

There are 86 co-sponsors and counting as of May 21, 2007 for H.R. 2060 - including a guy in Texas named Al Green. Coincidence? A list of co-sponsors is on the Library of Congress web site.

May 31, 2007 saw an 'emergency stay' filed by NPR and others, hoping to delay the 7/15 fee payment deadline while there are still legal and legislative matters in limbo. Also, the list of H.R. 2060 co-sponsors topped 100, "in large part because thousands of consumers have been calling, faxing and emailing their representatives." [WSJ]

June 26, 2007 - Many webcasters are silencing their streams today, in protest of the royalty increase. WFUV puts extra information over the air and online, asking listeners to help, and in turn we pledge to keep the music going for as long as we can. Let your Congressional representatives know how you feel today through www.savenetradio.org.

June 27, 2007 - There's every indication that yesterday's protest of the increased royalty rates was a huge success. There was a ton of press coverage, phones on Capitol Hill were jammed, and listeners brought down the server system for the country's most robust provider of online petitions (capwiz.com). Thanks for sharing! [Note: 14 million Net radio listeners visited SaveNetRadio.org, and nearly 400,000 phone calls were placed to members of the House and Senate.]

July 30, 2007 - A few weeks ago, Sound Exchange said that royalty-compliant webcasters can continue operating after the July 15th royalty bill deadline without fear of legal action, a dramatic change from the position webcasters and audiences were expecting the organization to endorse. Negotiations continue...

August 2, 2007 - Senators Ron Wyden and Sam Brownback announced yesterday that they were ready to take "expeditious steps" to push the Internet Radio Equality Act to the floor for a vote unless they saw real webcast royalty negotiations before Labor Day.

September, 2007 - Progress with the Internet Radio Equality Act has been put on hold since Sound Exchange agreed to sit down at the negotiating table with the various factions of the streaming community (including public radio). WFUV was part of a panel of stations gathering data as part of the discussion. So now, we wait.

Thanks:

Our sincere thanks to those of you who have written us letters about the importance of this service. We know that many of you count on the web as your only way to listen.