The RIAA and shoutcast

[welly_59]

will the recent RIAA decision to make webcasters pay royalties on songs played effect stations not based in the US??? Also will it affect staions that play a DJ mix-set?????

[Waltzking]

RIAA is an American organization and has no jurisdiction outside USA (although Americans thinks that they own the whole World).

Non-USA broadcasters should contact the performance rights society of the country in which the server is located (or in which the broadcaster lives) and obtain a license from them in order to stream copyrighted music.

Different countries have different royalty rates - some such as Japan has higher rates, some countries such as Canada have lower rates. Quite often it is difficult to compare because many countries such as Canada have taxes which may be added on to the fees.

Thereforee, most countries in the world have international agreements so that royalties collected are remitted to foreign societies when foreign songs are played on their radio stations. Thus you do not have to draw up a list yourself (Britian when you play "Phatom of the Opera", United States when you play "Star Wars theme songs", Hong Kong when you play "Kung Fu theme songs", Canada when you play Celine Dion, Austria when you play Herbert von Karajan, etc.) and send the royalties fees to 100 different countries around the world.

Pay your performance society in your own country and let them deal with the rest.