concerning rights to playing songs...

deecbailey · 17th September 2001, 01:46

The information you have been given in this forum is correct. Even if
you are not profiting from your webcasting, there is still a matter
known as "public performance", which includes broadcasting as well as
webcasting (for profit or not). The main thing that the music industry
is concerned about is non-regulated duplication. Your webcasts can be
copied and reproduced in a variety of forms. Data transmission allows
music to be distributed in such a manner that the potential exists for
high quality copies to be made with nothing more than an off-the-shelf
PC. With the broadcasters (at least here in the states) it's a bit
different as thay pay a blanket fee included with their broadcast
license fee. For webcasters it's a different story, and the laws are
still evolving (as is the technology). It appears that the RIAA, BMI,
ASCAP, SESAC and the smaller licensing outfits are on the verge of
agreeing to charge webcasters an anual fee based on listenership
(which sounds like a fair idea), but we'll just have to wait and see.
For now I think it's safe to say that if you feel you have a "high
profile" (lots of listeners) presence on the internet, you might want
to consider contacting the above mentioned outfits to work something
out. Better you contact them before thay contact you, but for most
webcasters this is almost a non-issue and (as mentioned by the moder-
ator) for the most part the current laws are hardly enforced as that
is almost impossible. My personal attitude is to wait it out, but I'm
just a small-fry ;=)

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17th September 2001, 01:46	#8
deecbailey Registered User Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Oakland, CA USA Posts: 20	The information you have been given in this forum is correct. Even if you are not profiting from your webcasting, there is still a matter known as "public performance", which includes broadcasting as well as webcasting (for profit or not). The main thing that the music industry is concerned about is non-regulated duplication. Your webcasts can be copied and reproduced in a variety of forms. Data transmission allows music to be distributed in such a manner that the potential exists for high quality copies to be made with nothing more than an off-the-shelf PC. With the broadcasters (at least here in the states) it's a bit different as thay pay a blanket fee included with their broadcast license fee. For webcasters it's a different story, and the laws are still evolving (as is the technology). It appears that the RIAA, BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and the smaller licensing outfits are on the verge of agreeing to charge webcasters an anual fee based on listenership (which sounds like a fair idea), but we'll just have to wait and see. For now I think it's safe to say that if you feel you have a "high profile" (lots of listeners) presence on the internet, you might want to consider contacting the above mentioned outfits to work something out. Better you contact them before thay contact you, but for most webcasters this is almost a non-issue and (as mentioned by the moder- ator) for the most part the current laws are hardly enforced as that is almost impossible. My personal attitude is to wait it out, but I'm just a small-fry ;=)