The Devil IS in the Details
or the Saga of Internet Radio, RIAA, Congress  AND The Library of Congress

[When last we picked up this story, I dropped the ball when I should have reported in more detail about the privately negotiated settlement between a group of webcasters called the Voices of Webcasters and the RIAA/Sound Exchange... We continue.]

It appears the LA Times has picked up the ball in covering the problems small webcasters are still facing over the royalty payments due the Library of Congress. In the article: Webcast Measure Divides Its Ranks, (reg required) writer Jon Healey tells the tail of a Detroit webcaster, Brian Hurley. Hurley is for all intent and purposes a "hobby webcaster," and complains loudly about the financial problems the hobbyist will face if he continues to webcast his music online. From where I sit, I wish Healey could have found a local LA webcaster who would talk on the record. But considering the major labels are here-- may be it was lucky Healey didn't.

Also it appears the original Sennenbrenner Bill is running into trouble. I am not surprised. The Bill was crafted under considerable pressure and negotiated at the last minute. In the end the Webcasters who profited from the Bill were the larger commercial webcasters and excluded the college and hobbiest webcasters. These are a large number of webcasters, and those without substantial bankrolls to buy favor in Congress.

Now it appears Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) is crafting and seeking support for of the record industry by encouraging them to "voluntarily" not collect fees while a new legislative solution is developed. Sources are telling us Helms is going to act in the best interest of those not represented by the first negotiation. Helm's plan is to seek legislative remedy (read a new law or laws,) for the "larger universe of webcasters," and "buy time" to pass a better solution during the "lame duck session" of Congress in November.  We could only hope-- and hope they get it right this time.

And finally The LA Times has also done an article explaining just how much power MaryBeth Peters, Registrar of Copyrights for the Libary of Congress actually has when it comes to ownership and enforcement points on the DCMA. The article called, She Holds the Cards in Copyright Fight, explains the Solomon's job Ms. Peters has when it comes to dividing the digital pie of "fair-use" of ownership, sale and transfer of ownership and royalities of everything from books and CD's on the re-sale market, to conducting fact-finding roundtable meetings to get all the facts.

Whether we like the decisions Peters has made, it is a monumental job I highly doubt she bought into when she started her career at the LOC some 38 years ago.

3:24:02 AM