 New CRB decisions stress need for parity, large webcasters tell Congress ·Dec 7, 06:06 AM From the Digital Media Wire: “Large Internet radio purveyors AOL, Yahoo, RealNetworks, Pandora and Live365 earlier this week sent a letter to key lawmakers in Washington, asking them to consider performance royalty parity for broadcast, satellite, cable and Internet radio. The letter was addressed to U.S. House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Berman (D-Calif.) [pictured right] and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), whose committees are currently re-evaluating the broadcast radio industry’s royalty rate exemption. The letter comes as both AOL and Yahoo have suggested they may shutter their Web radio services as a result of new, higher royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board… Earlier this week, the Copyright Royalty Board set new rates for satellite radio royalties at 6%, increasing to 8% by 2012… The large webcasters have been represented in negotiations with SoundExchange and lawmakers by the Digital Media Association (DiMA) trade group. Read the entire article at the Digital Media Wire. The full text of DiMA letter is below: December 3, 2007 The Honorable Howard Berman Dear Chairman Berman: We write to you in our capacity as providers of innovative, royalty-paying Internet radio services that are enjoyed by millions of Americans. We are following with great interest your investigation of the exemption that terrestrial broadcasters currently enjoy from paying sound recording performance royalties, and we understand that you may soon introduce legislation to remove this exemption. We believe this may present a unique opportunity to level the playing field among all music radio providers while also ensuring that artists receive fair compensation for the use of their works. The Copyright Act currently has three distinct sound recording performance royalty schemes for music radio services. • Broadcast radio is exempt from paying royalties, so it pays nothing to recording artists and copyright owners. • Most satellite and cable radio services (e.g., XM, Sirius, Music Choice) are “pre-existing” as defined by statute. Pursuant to a statutory four-factor balancing test (§17 USC 801(b)), these services have historically paid royalties between 3% and 7.5% of revenues. • Internet radio and “new” subscription service royalties are set pursuant to the willing-buyer willing-seller standard (§17 USC 114(f)(2)(b)). Internet radio royalties have historically exceeded 30% of revenue, and recently the Copyright Royalty Board relied on this standard to set royalties that effectively average more than 50% of revenue. In contrast, songwriter performance royalties for all radio services generally total between 3 and 5% of revenue. All radio services compete for advertising dollars, paying subscribers, or both. Our companies compete aggressively with one another, and with broadcast, satellite and cable radio. Our ability to offer innovative and competitive services to American listeners is undermined, however, by laws that create vastly disparate royalty obligations. As your inquiry into broadcast royalties proceeds, we look forward to working constructively with you to ensure that royalty parity exists among all radio services and that creators receive fair and reasonable royalty payments. Thank you for your consideration of our views. Sincerely, Rob Glaser Chairman/CEO, RealNetworks Managing Director Lisa Namerow AOL Radio Ian Rogers, General Manager, Yahoo! Radio Joe Kennedy CEO, Pandora Mark Lam CEO, Live365 cc: U.S. House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
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