Once again, the Copyright Royalty Board, a tribunal of the U.S. Copyright Office, has apparently sided almost 100% with copyright owners in the logic behind their decision, throwing away virtually 100% of the arguments of the copyright users (at least according to the SoundExchange press release on the subject)…

Recall that the rate the CRB judges set earlier this year for Internet radio — e.g., $.0014 per song per listener in 2008 — is, when you divide the royalty obligation by a webcasters’ total revenues, effectively a 50% to 400% (or more) royalty rate.

So 6% (or even 8%) seems like a pretty sweet deal…

I have more thoughts on this subject, but I’m in New York City today, so let me go find a Starbucks and I’ll write more in a few minutes.

UPDATE: In a SoundExchange press release on the subject, Michael Huppe, General Counsel of SoundExchange, is quoted as saying, “Though the final rate is below the actual value that music provides to these services, it nonetheless represents a significant increase over the royalties previously paid by satellite radio.”

Aha! That’s a solid piece of evidence that the confidential royalty rate that XM and Sirius had been paying was significantly less than the 7.5% proposed in the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Comment

1. Until we divorce ourselves from the british law which has effectively usurped our legal system, our currency, and our very way of life, we will have these commerce killing actions, and no end to taxation, which, afterall, is nothing more than a form of control.
   Lawyers do not care for the language below, nor do they care for Ron Paul, but if we do not get Ron Paul in 2008, I see dire straits ahead. Dire.

   All the State Codes are exactly what their titles indicate them to be:
   codes. They are written by and for those of the ruling system, in the
   system’s language, with loaded meanings, for self-serving and fraudulent
   purposes. All federal and state courts are private commercial bankruptcy
   tribunals collecting from the citizens (assets) to pay on the Chapter 11
   reorganization brought about by bankrupting the US through the paper-money
   banking-swindle. Codes are the private “law” used in the bankruptcy
   tribunals. As codes, they must be deciphered, which is the function of
   special decoders called “attorneys.” who write the codes (all of which, in
   the US, are copyrighted private law owned by foreign corporations, mostly
   British, such as Lord Thompson of the Thompson Group, Montreal) and are the
   only persons authorized to cross the bar and “practice” the private
   commercial maze of deliberate deceit falsely called “law.”

   an interesting list of honorary british knights:

   Bill Gates – KBE (2004)

   Billy Graham – KBE (2001)

   George H. W. Bush – GCB (1993)

   Rudolph W. Giuliani – KBE (2002)

   Alan Greenspan – KBE (2002)

   Ronald Reagan – GCB (1989)

   Caspar Weinberger – GBE (1988)

   General Omar Bradley – KCB

   General Wesley Clark – KBE (2000)

   First Head of CIA William Donovan – KBE

   General Dwight D. Eisenhower – GCB (1945), OM (1945)

   General John J. Pershing – GCB (1918)

   General Colin Powell – KCB (1993)

   General Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. – KCB (1993)

   Paul Getty – KBE (1987; later became a British subject) [1]

   Steven Spielberg – KBE (2001)

   Bob Hope – KBE

   and almost worse than that:

   Where lies thy allegiance? *: partial list of members of bush admin with israeli passports
       * *Paul Wolfowitz *
       * *Richard Perle *
       * *Douglas Feith *
       * *Michael Chertoff *
       * *Elliot Abrams *
       * *Donald Kagan *
       * *Richard Haas *
       * *Kenneth Adelman *
       * *Edward Luttwak *
       * *Robert Satloff *
       * *Dov Zakheim *
       * *David Frum *
       * *David Wurmser *
       * *Steve Goldsmith *
       * *Marc Grossman
   How does one get Top Secret US security clearances while holding a
   foreign passport?

   Isn’t there an OBVIOUS conflict of interest?

   One could argue these men were great patriots — but for which country?

   If you’re planning criminal acts, there is one major benefit of carrying
   an Israeli passport — if you can make it to Israel before you’re
   arrested, Israel will not extradite its own citizens.

   — Bill Gallagher · Dec 5, 08:20 PM · #

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