Copyright Royalty Board’s Request To Internet Radio: “Gimme Some Money”
In what can only be seen as bad news for your favorite streaming radio station, the Copyright Royalty Board–the branch of the Library of Congress that’s charged with enforcing copyright licenses–rejected the appeals of Internet broadcasters to reconsider the new, and much higher, royalty rates for broadcasting songs online, and reminded them that their first checks need to be in the mail by May 15.
While anti-CRB campaigns sharpened their Congressman-writing pencils, SoundExchange, which lobbied for the higher payouts, immediately issued a gloaty press release with the phrase “fair royalty rates” in the first sentence. According to the Broadcast Law Blog, the next stop for this battle is the D.C. Court of Appeals.
We’re hoping that there’s some slightly hip lawmaker out there who realizes the anachronistic absurdity of this decision (especially now that the blog-powered Hype Machine Radio has launched). And it’s not like SoundExchange is a completely unimpeachable organization; after all, anything that claims it’s working “for the artists,” but can’t even get it together to find Tommy Lee and give him Methods Of Mayhem’s royalties, should be viewed as a little suspect, no?
Copyright Royalty Board rejects appeals from Internet radio broadcasters [theage.com.au] Copyright Royalty Board Denies Rehearing Motions – Next Stop, Court of Appeals [Broadcast Law Blog]
