Do you stream internet radio on your land? Have you seen this?

If you use internet radio on your land, have you heard about the new Copyright Royalty Board decision which could shut down *all* internet radio within weeks? I just heard about this on Radio Nigel, the internet radio stream that we use on our land. I know a lot of others in SL use internet radio streams, so I wanted to post something about it here and get some feedback on it... if this decision goes through, it'd likely be the end of any radio streams on my land, or on anybody's land.

In short, the Copyright Royalty Board wants to impose extremely high new royalty fees on internet radio, fees which (when totalled on a per-song basis, as is planned) would exceed 100% of most webcasters' total revenues.

Save the Streams has a link to a petition to sign, and other steps to take, here. There's also an FAQ list here, and a broadcast law blog here which explains a bit more. Radio Nigel's homepage, with the link to the petition, is here.

I would urge anyone who uses internet radio on their land in SL to sign the petition, and use the additional link to send a message to Congress. This decision could wipe out streaming music for most of us, and I for one don't want to see that happen; music means too much to me.

Please pass on these links to anyone else you think might be interested, and if you have comments or additional info, post it here. Thanks!

Biting the hand that feeds they are... Increased commercials I see...

/me places a black patch over one eye while cackling "Har Har Har take a queens ransom it would to stop all me maties!"

Probably just doing it because record companies are greedy, and they think they can get away with it. I've signed the petition, and sent the message to my Congresspeople; the more people who do the same, the better chance it'll be stopped.

There's also a group in world called Save Internet Radio -- Get Involved. You can join and wear the "Save Internet Radio" tag while out and about to help bring this to the attention of those who may not know about this.

My shoutcast stream provider just made my broadcast 'private' instead of 'public'. That keeps us in compliance.

Private streams usualy just mean that it's not listed on any directory.
Even if you have password protected streams, it won't necessarilly make you compliant. You are still broadcasting songs to listeners regardless of whether a password is needed to access it.

Another thing to consider is that these fees are applied retroactively. Even if a private stream put you in compliance, you would owe backdated fees for the time it wasn't private.

Yep your congressional representative is the place to go if you want change. The RIAA lobbies the lawmakers, you have that power too and your vote counts.

Definitely. There's another link on the Save the Streams page to send a letter to your Congresspeople about this. The link has a copy-and-paste form you just have to fill in, it searches for the correct addresses for you; hope everyone who reads this hread is checking it out!

And yeah, like Sys mentioned, the fees are retroactive to January 1st, 2006, so even the back fees could kill a station.

Going after internet radio strikes me as awfuly desperate. A few rich, powerful people have had near absolute control over all popular entertainment right through the 20th century near enough. But times are changing, the old wireless in the corner can't compete with the draw of the internet. The rich powerful ones are doing everything they can to hold on to what they have, but these sorts of law suits just sound like a death rattle to me, like they're admiting defeat.

If I find out which companies are doing the sueing, I'll make sure they don't get any of my money in the future.

Vale

If your use of music is not subject to royalty, then a change in the royalty structure will not affect you.

I have a Shoutcast stream. It is not operational all the time. It is not advertised anywhere. I use it only for specific events for which I invited people. I play only songs for which I have purchased license to play. I do not need to pay royalties.

If the RIAA decides it wants to write a cease and desist letter to me, it does so at its own risk. I am not the kind of defendant the RIAA would want to use to set a legal precedent.

If the RIAA gets too greedy, it will hurt its own clients, and they will pressure the RIAA to change course. Otherwise, the creators of music have the right to try to make as much profit as possible from their work. Even if they are making arguably bad choices and hurting their profits, they still have the right to decide to do that anyway.

This move may also create alternate sources of content. Maybe instead of playing popular hits for music, internet radio will have to turn to playing local bands who don't have record deals yet. For Second Life, the musicians who play live music for events will become more sought-after. Personally, I would like to see both of those results.

Forgive an extremely naive and untutored question, but what I know about music and sound in SL or RL can fit on the head of a pin.

Who exactly is going to have to pay retroactive royalties for streaming?

I play music in-world in 2 ways:

1) I have a Raster radio that plays a selection of stations provided along with my purchase. I'll turn it on to listen to music while I landscape, then turn it off again when I leave so that my tenant isn't subjected to my music selection 24hr/7.

2) On another segment of my land, I have the Land option set to a URL that pipes in music 24/7 so that anyone strolling through the garden will hear classical music.

Since both of the sources draw from URLs, these would be internet radio stations, right? And they are the ones facing liabilites? Or do I, by streaming the music into my land, also end up as liable for the music I'm playing to anyone who wanders in?

I think this is caused by lack of knowledge at the streaming radio providers. They may think we recieve their stream and rebroadcast it. In reality we only provide the SL client with the URL of their OWN stream. So we are not stealing anything, we are not broadcasting anything, we are merely showing more consumers the way to THEIR business.

Internet radio stations which play music are the ones having to pay the fees. My original post has links which explain it a lot better than I can, but apparently the royalty fees used to be paid as a percentage of the station's revenues; now it's being changed to a per-song basis, which adds up a lot faster.

Any internet radio station that plays music (to put it simply, since I'm not up on all the legal aspects and details) is going to have to pay these fees, if this passes. In addition, the same ruling will impose a $500 minimum payment.

I almost always have Radio Nigel playing, or one of the SomaFM stations; if these fees go through, they'll never be able to afford to pay, and they'll be shut down. That's why I'm trying so hard to keep this thread active. I listen to internet radio all the time in world, and I could never afford a private stream; I don't want to see corporate greed take away my music.

The FAQ list here also has a list on the right-hand side of webcasters (such as Ultimate80's, Pandora and SomaFM) who are sponsoring this campaign.

From what I've read, it's not really stealing that's the issue. According to the FAQ site, internet radio stations were previously paying music royalty fees (in most cases, to record companies) as a percentage of their total revenue. This new ruling would change that to a fee per song, each time it plays.

The basic problem seems to be that the record companies want to squeeze more money out of the internet radio stations. They don't seem to care that internet radio gives their artists and songs more exposure; they just want more and more royalty fees.

It's corporate greed once again, with the little guys-- the internet radio broadcasters and their listeners-- getting hurt.

If you're concerned, you might want to go look up whom RIAA considers to be a broadcaster. In figuring out the meaning of any legal language, throw out your quaint notions of logic and common sense. Law is far more arbitrary.

Thank you for the spoon-fed answer. Something in my brain short-circuits when I wander into areas of knowledge that are utterly foreign to me and of little interest beyond my immediate need to turn a knob and then get on with my work.

One of these days I'll turn some knob I'm not supposed to have turned and get hauled away to jail 'cause I just wasn't paying attention when everyone was screaming "Don't do that anymore!"

Huh, wha....?

Happy to help! I just want to do whatever I can to let people know what's at risk. I know a lot of people in SL have internet radio stations playing on their land, so this ruling would affect SL in a big way.

Hah! I stream a shoutcast internet radio station 24/7 on my land. It happens to be my own station broadcasting my own recordings for which I own all the copyrights. I'd like to see RIAA or *ANY* record company or official body attempt to shut me down. They wouldn't have a leg to stand on.

Cool, in that case you're safe. So sign the petition anyway, for all the little guys who have to pay fees on what they play.

Ah, one little problem, Ilianexsi: I'm not US-based so I don't have a zip-code or US congressperson to represent me. But seeing how the US gov't is bent on world domination, they might as well have representatives for all the rest of the world.

In that case it becomes even more attractive for them having additional links to their streams: More revenue, but no more tunes played.

Not safe. If you are the one streaming you are in my view the only one who is in danger.

Edit: OW your own music. That should be safe.

So if I make a link to a website, I have to pay copyright for the content of the website?
Get real!
Let a judge decide on this and ask a technician before coming to a verdict.

You won't have to pay anything in this case unless you run an internet radio station. And a judge won't need to decide anything unless enough people protest the current ruling. The long and the short of it is, if this ruling goes through, the internet radio stations will go bankrupt trying to pay the new fees and won't be able to bring us music anymore. That's why everybody needs to check out the links and sign the petition.