news.com.com— A bill introduced in Congress Thursday aims to overturn a controversial royalty fee increase that Internet radio advocates say threatens to cripple their services.
Apr 26, 2007View in Crawl 4
called my rep. after getting the Pandora email... it was very satisfying, not to mention easy! the economic assassination of internet radio, I believe, can be reversed! please call your rep. immediately.
I've read your argument xNIBx and I too had the same thought process but I'll explain to you what was explained to me as to why that will not work:The way the US Copyright Law is written, these royalties apply to any stream that can be retrieved by US listeners, because you are in theory broadcasting to people in the United States. Actually when you use the Internet as your means of broadcasting you broadcast to everyone by default. In order to be able to circumvent the long arm of the law; you would have to literally ban all US IP addresses from accessing the stream. This means while I could host a station based out of the Philippines (which as some lacks copyright enforcement policies of any nation I've research thus far), I would still be held responsible for answering to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Sound Exchange because US listeners could and most likely would be tuning in. Another way you could get around it would be to play artists dedicated to that particular country but as everyone knows; if you don't at least throw in some of the mainstream artists or bands your listenership will soon tank.So in theory if a UK station that was completely operated by someone or a group of people living in the UK were to play mainstream music to someone listening in the United States, they are technically responsible for the royalties due to the representing entities in the states. I don't agree with this, obviously. I am just stating this to say that as the way things stand currently and the entities wanted to push the issue they could go after anyone at anytime for violating copyright law in the United States. Obviously this isn't very plausible since that would mean millions of dollars would be spent in expedition fees to bring someone from another country to answer to US Law.I hope this clears up the misconception.
"Why cant all these radio stations be hosted on some other country?"The radio stations can be hosted in Holland. That doesn't mean that the US-based company would be free of needing to pay royalties. Also, you may (or may not) then have to worry about importation rules. Probably not, but if the location of a US-company's servers somehow impacted their royalty fees, it would probably also make them susceptible to importation laws, which would be a bit more complicated too.If they moved the entire business out to another country, then that might work. But not in a "I put the wrong address on my tax form" kind of way. If they were still really in the US, they'd be liable. So this method has more to do with underground sites than legitimate US businesses.
Wouldn't work for me, I have more than 96 square feet of books. Heck, I bet I have more than 96 square feet of DVDs...Although, if I scanned/ripped everything, stored it on a series of terabyte drives... Hmm....
bobbymcApr 27, 2007
FOUR DOWN. FOUR GODDAMN ARTICLES DOWN. BURN IN HELL.
kingkilrApr 27, 2007
7.5% is roughly half of what it was before.
mejogidApr 27, 2007
Get out of the basement - you need some light.
Closed AccountApr 27, 2007
YES HOORAY HOORAY HOORAY
wiremonkeymommyApr 28, 2007
called my rep. after getting the Pandora email... it was very satisfying, not to mention easy! the economic assassination of internet radio, I believe, can be reversed! please call your rep. immediately.
bjornskiApr 28, 2007
Yeah, just look at all that horrible Democratic recklessness in the last 6 years.Bloody corrupt f**kers, I tell ya.
bjornskiApr 28, 2007
They don't CARE what the people want. The "people" aren't paying millions and millions to lobby for this s**t.They want to be re-elected.
bmatherlyjrApr 28, 2007
I've read your argument xNIBx and I too had the same thought process but I'll explain to you what was explained to me as to why that will not work:The way the US Copyright Law is written, these royalties apply to any stream that can be retrieved by US listeners, because you are in theory broadcasting to people in the United States. Actually when you use the Internet as your means of broadcasting you broadcast to everyone by default. In order to be able to circumvent the long arm of the law; you would have to literally ban all US IP addresses from accessing the stream. This means while I could host a station based out of the Philippines (which as some lacks copyright enforcement policies of any nation I've research thus far), I would still be held responsible for answering to ASCAP, BMI, SESAC and Sound Exchange because US listeners could and most likely would be tuning in. Another way you could get around it would be to play artists dedicated to that particular country but as everyone knows; if you don't at least throw in some of the mainstream artists or bands your listenership will soon tank.So in theory if a UK station that was completely operated by someone or a group of people living in the UK were to play mainstream music to someone listening in the United States, they are technically responsible for the royalties due to the representing entities in the states. I don't agree with this, obviously. I am just stating this to say that as the way things stand currently and the entities wanted to push the issue they could go after anyone at anytime for violating copyright law in the United States. Obviously this isn't very plausible since that would mean millions of dollars would be spent in expedition fees to bring someone from another country to answer to US Law.I hope this clears up the misconception.
jumpfroggyApr 28, 2007
"Why cant all these radio stations be hosted on some other country?"The radio stations can be hosted in Holland. That doesn't mean that the US-based company would be free of needing to pay royalties. Also, you may (or may not) then have to worry about importation rules. Probably not, but if the location of a US-company's servers somehow impacted their royalty fees, it would probably also make them susceptible to importation laws, which would be a bit more complicated too.If they moved the entire business out to another country, then that might work. But not in a "I put the wrong address on my tax form" kind of way. If they were still really in the US, they'd be liable. So this method has more to do with underground sites than legitimate US businesses.
jordanlundApr 28, 2007
Wouldn't work for me, I have more than 96 square feet of books. Heck, I bet I have more than 96 square feet of DVDs...Although, if I scanned/ripped everything, stored it on a series of terabyte drives... Hmm....