Internet Radio SoundExchange Talks Fail
The Digital Media Association confirmed that negotiations with SoundExchange over net radio royalties did not yield an agreement before the February 15 deadline. The DiMA, on behalf of its members which include RealNetworks, Pandora and MTV has been negotiating with SoundExchange since March of 2007 when the Copyright Royalty Board increased some webcasters royalties by 300%.
"I am disappointed that DiMA negotiations with SoundExchange did not result in an agreement…," the DiMA's Jonathan Potter said in a statement. "Many points were agreed upon, but we are unable to resolve our principled differences regarding the applicability of sound recording performance royalties to various activities of multifaceted online companies, particularly when those activities and their revenue are not directly associated with the performance of sound recordings." Potter promised to continue the fight in the new session of Congress.
“In the upcoming Congress DiMA will continue to fight for legislative and royalty parity, to ensure that whether a radio service uses cable, satellite or Internet technology to distribute programming – all will play and pay by the same rules and artists will benefit equally. DiMA also anticipates participating in the CRB proceeding to set Internet royalty rates for 2011-2016.”
“DiMA thanks all who supported the Webcaster Settlement Act and thereby
provided an opportunity for these negotiations, including Chairman
Conyers, Chairman Berman, Chairman Leahy, and Ranking Members Smith and
Specter. We are extremely grateful to more than 150 supporters of the
Internet Radio Equality Act, most notably Congressmen Jay Inslee and
Don Manzullo and Senators Ron Wyden and Sam Brownback.
Soundexchange wants them royalties you bad internets!….so they can fail to find the artists again and have another forfeiture to the RIAA….windfall remix!
Scum bags scum bags eat them up yum!
brendan b brown
wheatus.com
well i can say this much, soundexchange is actually a illegal organization there to may companies pay for royalties that were already paid for, technically, if you have a fm broadcast station you pay the fees and royalties, here is a good example of fraud on their part, if you play a song that has no US copyright holder at all and the record label or band doesn’t have representation in the USA they still expect you to pay these fees, and since the band doesn’t have representation they cannot legally collect that money owed, and also if you recall circular 92 of the copyright law this is a true violation of international agreements, makes you wonder why this only is in the USA and no other country in the world does this? so i warn and state to people use a service based out of Europe, and register a company in Europe that way you know everything is 100% legal and no fraud just remember technically its the origination of the signal, and today all FM station use computers so its digital in the first place, so you can see the double standard here, with our firm we are starting in late 2009 everything will be based on European Soil, also you have to be warned that soundexchange is a fraud and has been since its beginning, we don’t mind to pay the royalties owed and following the law but when you have convention and international agreements and trying to commit fraud in this manner is a Pandora box ready to break open in international lawsuits just because a few political fools created a law, they should have thought first about the international implications of such and violations of multi national agreements. like i there VP in Dc said to me directly that you have to pay a fee on every song even if there is not a copyright owner, or even no American copyright. technically this is illegal 100% and fraud.
18 yrs business owner of import, export, distribution in the USA and FM radio, and hold a Masters in Business and International Law./ thorsteen@iwon.com