CIS SUPPORTS WEBCASTERS
Files motion with US Copyright Office to stay Royalty fees
On Friday, two briefs authored by the Center for Internet and Society were filed with the Copyright in support of motions to stay the Librarian of Congress's Final Rule and Order on webcasting royalties. Under the Final Rule, webcasters must pay royalties for all their sound recording transmissions using the Internet from 1998 through summer 2002 on October 20th. The royalty rates announced June 20 are prohibitively high, and have already caused thousands of Internet radio stations to close their doors. Check out the Save Our Streams webpage for more information about the devastating impact of the royalty rates on college radio.
CIS is representing Collegiate Broadcasters Inc, which on Friday moved for a stay of the Librarian's Order for college webcasters as well as supporting Live365's Motion for Stay filed September 27, 2002. CIS also has been consulting and authoring briefs for the ioMedia Group of petitioners, 19 Internet Radio stations and networks, including Live365, that have appealled the Librarian's ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Some of these Internet stations have now negotiated an agreement with the recording industry that creates an alternative royalty option for small commercial webcasters to save them from bankruptcy. This deal is the subject of a the Small Webcasters Amendments Act of 2002, H.R. 5469, which passed on October 7th in the U.S. House and is pending in the Senate. But this legislation, as drafted, still calls for small webcasters to pay a hefty percentage of their gross revenues, would not help larger webcasters and would only help certain college stations. For more information about HR 5469, check out the Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN). The Court of Appeals has yet to set a briefing schedule for the consolidated appeals from the Librarian's Order that are now pending in the D.C. Circuit.
Briefs will be online at the CIS site soon!