Post by Baboon on May 5, 2007 0:06:27 GMT -5
On Friday, March 2nd, the Copyright Royalty Board (a three-member panel which is an extension of the government) set new royalty rates for Web broadcasters. As you may know, a certain amount of money is paid by the broadcasters to the copyright holders to allow the music and other content to be played over the internet. However, these new rates are beyond absurdity. They call for Web broadcasters to pay $.0008 (eight hundredths of a cent) for every song (or part of song) per listener for 2006, retroactive. That may not quite sound like a lot, but if you consider the fact that many songs are played and sites frequently have thousands of listeners at any given time, this amount is staggering to say the least. And that's just the beginning. The rate is set to increase dramatically each year - up to $.0019 per song per person for 2010. That's a 137.5% increase on already ridiculous rates over just a few years' time.
Long story short, these rates are a far cry from the fixed percentage deal negotiated for Web broadcasters back in 2002. Under that system, broadcasters would pay a fixed percentage of their total revenue as royalties. These new per-play rates are simply enough to absolutely shut down nearly all internet radio instantly. The internet radio station I listen to the most - www.di.fm - will be facing a bill of over two million dollars come July... far more than they even take in. (And this isn't even considering the money needed to pay for equipment, bandwidth, etc.)
A bill has recently been introduced to Congress to nullify these rates - H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act. This bill seeks to set the royalty rates of Web broadcasters at 7.5% of total revenues, in parity with what satellite radio broadcasters currently pay.
So, why am I posting this now and not back in March? Well, it's probably the fact that the rates set were so unbelievably ridiculous that I didn't think they would actually stick. It is now May 5th, and the first new royalty bills will be due for broadcasters on July 15th. If Congress signs this new bill into law, internet radio will survive for many years to come. So, what can you do? First, I will direct you to www.savenetradio.org/ . That site provides much more information than I've given here and helps you to contact your representatives. Sometimes, a single letter from one person is all it takes to get your point made. I've been meaning to write a letter for a couple days now but haven't gotten to it yet. I know most people won't be writing their representatives, but if nothing else, I hope this post will have informed you of the nonsense that has been going on.
If you have any questions about this topic or simply want to talk about it, feel free to post here.
Long story short, these rates are a far cry from the fixed percentage deal negotiated for Web broadcasters back in 2002. Under that system, broadcasters would pay a fixed percentage of their total revenue as royalties. These new per-play rates are simply enough to absolutely shut down nearly all internet radio instantly. The internet radio station I listen to the most - www.di.fm - will be facing a bill of over two million dollars come July... far more than they even take in. (And this isn't even considering the money needed to pay for equipment, bandwidth, etc.)
A bill has recently been introduced to Congress to nullify these rates - H.R. 2060, The Internet Radio Equality Act. This bill seeks to set the royalty rates of Web broadcasters at 7.5% of total revenues, in parity with what satellite radio broadcasters currently pay.
So, why am I posting this now and not back in March? Well, it's probably the fact that the rates set were so unbelievably ridiculous that I didn't think they would actually stick. It is now May 5th, and the first new royalty bills will be due for broadcasters on July 15th. If Congress signs this new bill into law, internet radio will survive for many years to come. So, what can you do? First, I will direct you to www.savenetradio.org/ . That site provides much more information than I've given here and helps you to contact your representatives. Sometimes, a single letter from one person is all it takes to get your point made. I've been meaning to write a letter for a couple days now but haven't gotten to it yet. I know most people won't be writing their representatives, but if nothing else, I hope this post will have informed you of the nonsense that has been going on.
If you have any questions about this topic or simply want to talk about it, feel free to post here.