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SoundExchange
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SoundExchange Oversteps BoundsAugust 6, 2007 ~~ Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk has exposed evidence which suggests that SoundExchange may have been (and still is) financially involved in a lobbying and public relations operation. This would be in violation of the copyright laws, specifically the part where it is itemized what SoundExchange can spend money on. It does not include lobbying. When Buskirk asked SoundExchange's head honcho John Simson about the legal implications, Simson answered a question that someone had asked him earlier in the week. Copyright Office Fails Mission Againby George Ziemann -- July 14, 2007
If you haven't been following the story about SoundExchange and webcaster royalty rates, I don't blame you because if you're not a webcaster it's all about channels and a lot of really boring stuff wherein tenths of a cent add up to a billion dollars. My personal opinion is that they should have stopped playing RIAA music five years ago. Of course, it's too late for that now. The U.S. Copyright Office has practically handed the keys over to the RIAA by proving themselves totally incapable of "administering and sustaining an effective national copyright system." I don't know about the rest of you out there, but I can say that this is certainly not promoting my personal level of creativity. In fact, if I think about it too long, the current state of affairs is more likely to stop the creative impulse because, well really, why bother? The Copyright Royalty Board was supposed to "determine rates and terms for the copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the Copyright Office." This was theoretically an improvement on the copyright royalty arbitration panel they used to have. The old method was officially called the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel, even though that makes no sense except that its acronym worked out to CARP instead of CRAP. CARP didn't work because the RIAA bought out the game. Like any government activity, it cost a few million dollars every time they got together to hammer out new rates. The expense was divided among those wishing to take part. So the RIAA would pre-negotiate with, oh, everybody they could, significantly raising the price of admission to the discussion. Part of the thinking behind the CRB was that it would be a permanent panel of judges, more involved parties could actually participate in the discussions and, whereas CARP only made recommendations, the CRB could actually set the rates. After almost three years, the first set of rates determined by this new, impartial board has been examined by all involved parties and even tested in an appeals court. Their decision stands. Sadly, their decision is so fucked up that SoundExchange (aka the RIAA) is now apparently willing to ignore it completely and negotiate individually with each webcaster, exactly the sort of situation the whole arbitration over statutory rates was supposed to eliminate. A complete and total failure. Another Royalty Forfeiture From SoundExchangeBy FRED WILHELMS May 2007 -- Maybe they thought no one would notice with all the furor over the Internet Radio rates. And maybe they just don't care about artists as much as they want you to believe. The wonderful folks at SoundExchange have apparently decided that they need more ready cash to fund their publicity campaign in favor of the universally despised CRB Internet Radio royalty rates. They've decided to drain more money from the accounts of artists they haven't been able to find. That's right. There's another forfeiture scheduled, and this time they didn't even bother to issue a press release about it. On June 30, 2007, less than sixty days from now, artists who have managed to evade that super-efficient SoundExchange dragnet up to now will stand to lose all royalties collected on their behalf for broadcasts between April 1, 2000 and October 31, 2002. Complete Story... Webcasting's Untimely Demiseby George Ziemann -- May 2, 2007 They say that because of the new higher rates put in place by the RIAA and SoundExchange (technically two companies, but SoundExchange is the RIAA), webcasting (aka Internet radio) is going to disappear in two weeks. then it got pushed back to mid-June, the panic was over and everyone stopped talking about it. I've tried real hard to get interested in this story, but I'm having a hard time because the answer to the problem seems pretty obvious: Really. It's that simple. Of course, some people will tell you that this won't work. They don't know what they're talking about. It not only will work, it is the ONLY WAY to correct the problem. Problem: SoundExchange is authorized to collect royalties for all digital transmissions, so it doesn't matter if you play music from non-RIAA sources. Solution: Read SoundExchange's FAQs.
Hmmm. What to do? If only there were an example of how this same sort of scenario had worked out in the past... Perhaps we could adapt it to solve this dilemma. Well, duh. I've only typed this story in about 15 times before, so today I'm gonna borrow the San Francisco Virtual Museum's version.
Let's see, broadcasting fees were a percentage of ad revenue, ASCAP wanted to create a new system and jack up the price when an agreement expired. Broadcasters were pissed off because ASCAP was the only game in town. Sounds like the webcasting problem to me. And not just a little bit. The difference is that ASCAP had already been being a pain in the ass to radio for 17 years, while the webcasters are only 8 years in, if that.
A 17-year battle, ended in five months. So, applying the above lesson to the current problem, it seems as if the webcasters need to find a coalition of sound recording owners (independent labels) willing to strike a more modest arrangement than the RIAA. Dump the RIAA music and play something else. Anything less is an exercise in futility. Many Artists Lost Digital RoyaltiesOn Friday, December 15, 2006, about 7,500
recording artists lost money. This is money that was collected
on their behalf by SoundExchange, the entity set up by the RIAA
to collect and distribute license fees from satellite radio and
streaming Internet broadcasts. SoundExchange has done a pretty good
job collecting the fees from the broadcasters. They haven't done
as good a job of finding the artists they are supposed to be
paying. But it is really no skin off their nose if they don't
find them, because, when they don't, they get to keep the money
they would have to pay out. Real great royalty scam. You'd almost think the RIAA ran SoundExchange. SoundExchange Board
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