|
Online radio to pay royalties?
|
 |
December 11, 2000: 12:25 a.m. ET
Feds contend stations that play records online should pay royalties, report says
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Government regulators said radio stations putting their programming online should pay royalties to record labels, according to published reports.
Both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal's Web sites reported Sunday that a ruling by the U.S. Copyright Office -- expected to be published Monday -- means that radio stations will pay the same royalty rates to the labels as companies that only stream their music over the Internet.
| |
 WHY PAY ANYTHING?
|
|
| |
|
The radio concerns don't pay record labels for their broadcasts over the airwaves, and had argued that they also shouldn't pay when they put the same programs out on the Web, the Journal reported.
|
|
|
It isn't yet clear how much money is at stake, because those rates will be set in an arbitration proceeding overseen by the copyright office, the Journal reported.
The radio concerns don't pay record labels for their broadcasts over the airwaves, and had argued that they also shouldn't pay when they put the same programs out on the Web, the story said.
The copyright office ruling is a step toward creating a regulatory structure for the nascent Web-music business, which is tangled in legal and regulatory disputes over how intellectual-property rights should work online, the Journal reported.
However, the regulators' decision faces a challenge in federal court, the story said. Broadcasters have filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York, asking a judge to rule on the issue.
Edward O. Fritts, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Broadcasters said stations "have never been required to pay the record companies," the Journal reported.
He contended that "Congress specifically exempted us" in legislation related to digital music transmissions, and radio stations already pay royalties to songwriters and music publishers, the story said.
A spokesman for Clear Channel Communications Inc., the big radio-station firm based in San Antonio, said the company was disappointed with the decision but couldn't comment further until it had seen the full text, the story said. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
