A federal copyright panel rejected requests last week that it reconsider its March decision to increase royalties for web streaming of music. The decisions can be appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington.
Webcasters have lambasted the new fee structure since the three-judge Copyright Royalty Board adopted it March 2, [2007], saying it will cripple online music streaming.
NPR was among a broad group of broadcasters, webcasters, Internet companies and artists that asked the judges to reconsider the decree. But the panel declined, saying the petitioners didn’t offer legally compelling reasons to rehear the decision, according to the filing. NPR is speaking with members of Congress about the new royalties, spokeswoman Andi Sporkin said.
Under the new standard, web streamers’ copyright payments to record labels will be based on their numbers of streaming listeners, with the rate rising annually.
The latest decision, April 16, gave webcasters limited, temporary relief. The board’s earlier decision would have applied the new rates retroactively back through 2006. But the board agreed last week to wait until 2008 to implement the per-play standard—webcasters complained that it's too difficult to estimate past plays. Until 2008, webcasters will continue paying per hour, albeit at higher rates than the current ones.
The board did not change its March decision to impose commercial rates on public radio stations whose total monthly user-hours exceed pubradio’s average. As a result, roughly 20 percent of pubradio stations could face significant new streaming fees, the panel estimated.
On April 16, the same day that the board revisited its ruling, a coalition of artists and webcasters launched a national advocacy website at SaveNetRadio.org.
NPR asked the federal Copyright Royalty Board March 17 [2007] to reconsider its proposed music royalty rates for webcasting, which would greatly raise some stations’ costs. The network plans to appeal the decision in federal court.
Earlier this month the copyright board had proposed that webcasters pay music copyright holders a flat annual fee of $500 per channel. Stations with web audiences beyond a certain threshold would pay added fees based on web listenership. The panel estimated that 20 percent of public radio stations meet the threshold.
NPR, representing its member stations and CPB-qualified stations, charged that the $500 fee per channel is “arbitrary and insupportable.” Even without the additional charges, the network said, the per-channel fee would be a fivefold increase over NPR’s previous agreement with the record industry.
Furthermore, most public radio stations are unable to reliably track web listening, NPR said, making the fee structure impractical. The network also protests the panel’s decision to bill public stations at the same rate as commercial broadcasters if they pass the listening threshold.
Web page posted April 26, 2007
Copyright 2007 by Current Publishing Committee