What effect does this new internet radio ruling have on SL?

Do current copyright laws have much influence on all the DJs playing GBs of downloaded music already?

If it means RadioNigel winds up, then for me it means less streamed music choice on my home parcel.

To be honest, I suspect many SL djs don't pay any RIAA fees. I'm not sure of the legality of that, given that some claim it's to a private invited audience.

However, it's going to hurt anybody who does do it by the book.

It just makes a bad picture even worse.

To be a completely US-based DJ in the United States, you most likely need four licenses: the Copyright Royalty Board (aka RIAA) one for the recorded music rights, and three for the rights to the songs themselves: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. All have substantial annual minimum fees. The LEAST you can possibly pay for the three is over $1500/year, and if you have any revenue at all, it's even more. And you haven't even paid for hosting yet.

The amount that a small Second Life DJ would owe to RIAA doesn't actually go up at all. It already had a $500/year minimum, and most of them wouldn't reach it. The change is that, under the old scheme, a non-commercial broadcaster (one with no or negligible revenue) didn't have to keep track of listener hours, because there was a provision for fees based on revenue. Under the new scheme, they do.

The alternative would be to work with a rights aggregator like Live365 (both rights and hosting) or LoudCity (rights only, you bring your own host); their prices are far more reasonable for small-scale operations. Unfortunately, the contracts of both companies for small-scale broadcasters require that all users come by way of their web site; that's obviously impossible for Second Life streaming, since your listeners aren't using a web browser at all. They also offer professional services that don't require the web visit, but those are much more expensive.

Live musicians aren't completely out of the woods either. They're not using recordings, so they don't have to pay the Copyright Royalty Board. But unless they only perform their own compositions or songs that are under open licenses like Creative Commons, they still need licenses from one or more of the songwriter organizations.

If we were ever going to have legal streamed music in Second Life, we likely need to go to a different model; one where the VENUE is expected to hold the license, not the DJ. That makes more sense, because a single venue probably logs a lot more streaming hours than a single DJ, so the minimum fees wouldn't be as big a problem. We might even consider the extreme case: having LL hold music licenses. (I doubt they'll go for it, though; it could be an administrative nightmare.)

That was extremely informative. Thanks for the input