Licensing Problem Silences Internet Radio Stations 100
SEWilco writes "Hundreds of Internet radio stations that use SWCast.net for services have been affected by a shutdown triggered by SoundExchange, who claim lack of payment of royalty fees. Apparently SoundExchange has a new president, and this might be a factor in acting on several years of missing payments. In the meantime, SWCast radio stations suffer after paying to legally broadcast."
Wow. Just WOW! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Concerned over the word "license" (Score:2, Informative)
Statutory license under the US copyright act is not related in any way to contract law. It is, if anything, a restriction of rights to the rights holder granting anyone who wishes to use the copyrighted material a license PROVIDED that they are in compliance with the terms. Which SWCast clearly were not.
So, you can push back, but against what?
Re:A sucker born every minute (Score:5, Informative)
SoundExchange is a non-profit corporation that collects and distributes the statutory royalties for performances in new media:
- Digital cable and satellite television services (Music Choice and Muzak)
- Non-interactive 'webcasters" (including original programmers and retransmissions of FCC-licensed radio stations by aggregators)
- Satellite radio services.
The split looks like this:
50% to the sound recording copyright owmer.
45% to the featured artist. (which can be a group or ensemble)
5% to non-featured artists.
The payout to date: $614 million.
To about 46,000* registered performers and 6,000 SCROs - an SCRO can be an artist owned "label," of course.
Registration is free, "membership" is free, but membership is not required. SoundExchange [soundexchange.com]
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* In a population of 300 million, this may give you some notion of what it takes to become a professional musician with significant national exposure.
Re:A sucker born every minute (Score:4, Informative)
I've been browsing over some fo the Soundexchange's FAQ...wow, it sounds like they're wanting you to pay them if you have any sort of webcast. Maybe it is the wording....but almost sounds like if stream anything...even recordings YOU make yourself (musical or otherwise) they are wanting you to pay them a license???
Can someone tell me if I'm reading that correctly or not?
Yes, you're reading that right. The way the regulations are written, you must pay royalties to SoundExchange and then negotiate with them on reimbursement for works not copyrighted by one of the media/content cartel players.
Even if you're streaming only your own totally original, personally-written & performed music., technically you must pay SoundExchange and then file with SoundExchange as the artist in question who is "owed", and hope you see the money back (minus SoundExchange's percentage, of course) before the next geologic age comes to pass.
Basically it's a way to put a boot on the throat of non-cartel-associated streaming stations and independent artists/labels by buying legislation.
It's all part of Big Media's efforts to prevent artists and their fans/customers from using the internet to do an end-run around Big Media's real-life, conventional distribution/publication/marketing channels that take cuts at each stage.
Government will not help, as the internet and it's communications possibilities make government-types nervous, and so they're all for increasing internet restrictions, regulations, and controls in an effort to keep the populace under their control & surveillance while eliminating dissenting voices and economically-disruptive new individual-empowering distribution methods and technologies.
Strat