[Imc] Web Broadcast Royalty Plan Rejected

[Duane Whittingham]

Web Broadcast Royalty Plan Rejected

Tuesday May 21, 2002 

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Librarian of Congress has rejected proposed
royalty
rates that would have charged Internet broadcasters based on each Web
user
that listens in.

Librarian James H. Billington will issue a final decision setting the
new
rates by June 20, the U.S. Copyright Office said Tuesday.

The Copyright Office ruled in December 2000 that organizations
distributing music and other radio content over the Internet must pay
additional fees to record companies that hold song copyrights.

In February, an arbitration panel proposed rates based on each person
who
is receiving a broadcast sent online. The rates range from .07 of a
cent
per song for a radio broadcast to .14 of a cent for all other
copyrighted
audio sent on the Internet.

For example, if 1,000 people use their computers to listen to a song
broadcast by a radio station online, the broadcaster would have to pay
for
the song and for each of those listeners, or 70 cents. If those people
listen to two songs, the fee would be $1.40.

Record companies do not receive fees for songs played only on radio
broadcasts.

The recording industry had wanted higher rates, while companies that
deliver music and video online had sought lower ones. The proposed
rates
would have cost larger webcasters hundreds of thousands of dollars
annually.

Earlier this month, hundreds of Internet broadcasters joined in a "Day
of
Silence" to protest proposed royalties that many of them say would put
their small operations out of business and deal a blow to musical
diversity online in favor of a few large outlets playing the same
roster
of Top 40 hits.


On the Net: U.S. Copyright Office: http://www.loc.gov/copyright/


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