U.S. panel gets earful over royalty rate increase for webcasters - Computerworld

[bt89ak61]

The committee held a hearing today to bring the sides together to work out a compromise. Excerpts of the hearing are available on YouTube.


Computerworld - A House committee tried to forge a compromise between the parties for and against a planned royalty rate increase set by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

The rate increase angered small and large webcasters who said they can't afford the increased fees,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, which are set to go into effect on July 15. At the hearing, the committee looked at how these new regulations will affect small webcasters,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, as well as ways to make sure intellectual property rights of artists are maintained.

In her testimony, recording and performing artist Cathy Fink said the CRB judges developed the rates after reviewing testimony from all participants, including proprietary financial information to which no one else had access.





Earlier this year, the federal CRB set rates that would at least triple the amount of royalties Internet radio broadcasters must pay to copyright holders to play a song. Under the board ruling, royalty rates will be changed from a percentage of revenue to a per-song, per-listener fee. The entities affected include pure-play Internet radio stations, digital music stations and traditional broadcast stations that also stream their programs. The new rates, which would be retroactive to 2006, would increase until 2010. Federal lawmakers have filed legislation that would reverse the board's decision.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
"I want to say it loudly and clearly, the Copyright Royalty Board was an impartial panel, set up by Congress that conducted a fair and painstaking proceeding," Fink told the committee. "There truly is no valid complaint about process. It really comes down to money: Big webcasters want to pay us less than what the judges determined was fair. ... There's a bottom line here: Without the talent, hard work and sacrifice of recording artists, there would be no music to play, and no music to build the assets of webcasters' businesses. It embraces a simple principle -- that we deserve to be paid for our work."
Velazquez said the new fees imposed by the CRB were "overly cumbersome" and if they were applied, the future development of the industry would be in jeopardy. "We cannot allow that to happen," she said.



"Internet radio provides an important opportunity to diversify listening options and promote lesser-known artists who otherwise would not have their songs broadcast," said Nydia Velazquez,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business,You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login, in a statement. "This is a new and exciting field with vast potential for growth, but the CRB regulations will be a major obstacle for expansion of the industry."

                                                                                                                                                       
U.S. panel gets earful over royalty rate increase for webcasters - Computerworld