Mary Wehmeier: Internet Radio - Webcasting

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

Wed, 23 Oct 2002 10:24:02 GMT

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.

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

Tue, 08 Oct 2002 10:34:50 GMT

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

[This weekend we had a major multiday power and cable modem failure-- it figures this news would break.]

When last we picked up this story last Tuesday, Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sponsored Bill HR5469 to delay the Webcaster's fee payments for 6 months, had pulled the bill from the voting schedule. It also appeared that Sensenbrenner had applied a little down-home common sense into the fray. He and his staff grabbed the webcasters (using the name the Voice of the Webcasters,) and RIAA representatives by the scruff of the neck, thrown them into a conference room and told them to "negotiate a fair settlement or else." For the novice webcaster's who entered the lion's den to deal with the posse from the RIAA it was their first opportunity to see what it is really like to dance with the devil.

For the next couple days into the weekend I was personally bombarded with confidential notes and messages from those inside and outside the negotiations about what was being discussed. While I personally offered my opinions, I remained publically silent, (as I promised,) as to not interupt the progress the group was trying to debate and come to terms.

Now that things been agreeded upon, I can and will offer my opinions publically.

The webcasters involved in the negotiations did one hell of a job for their first time at bat in the lawmaking process. For most of these people who are not lawyers, nor have they ever played in the political circles of lobbying for a cause, I am personally very proud of the work they did, especially against professional lobbyists and lawyers who do this on a daily basis and generally have the morals of an female black widow at mating time. The webcasters learned these "pros" had to be watched at every turn of the process, even when they attempted to exclude the artists from the revenues ethically due them.

Welcome to the big leagues folks!

The reality check is the RIAA finally got the message. No matter how the RIAA will spin it-- some reasonable amount of money is better than no money. And the webcasters stood up for their principles to pay a reasonable fees based upon fiar percentages of revenue-- and they made sure the artist got a direct portion of the money.

More later... I'm way too tired right now.

Zoe Lofgren Should be Sainted

Fri, 04 Oct 2002 03:57:24 GMT

Zoe Lofgren Should be Sainted: Congresswomen Zoe Lofgren puts common sense in goverment. She and her staff have written the "The Digital Choice and Freedom Act of 2002." The law defines those gray areas some people like Mary Bono would like to remain hers.

AES Comes to LA This Weekend

Wed, 02 Oct 2002 22:35:03 GMT

AES Comes to LA This Weekend

Audio Engineering Society (AES) comes to the LA Convention Center this weekend Oct 5-8. I've been invited to sit in on a couple sessions, including Leo Chiariglione's address on "MP3 and Beyond: Friend or Foe to the Audio Industry?" and "THE DIGITAL MICROPHONE STANDARD" with Stephan Peus of Neuman. We'll keep you posted on what happens.

Pass This Along: 20-Day Live Webcast to Raise Awareness of Internet Radio!

Wed, 02 Oct 2002 10:58:24 GMT

Pass This Along: 20-Day Live Webcast to Raise Awareness of Internet Radio!

Las Vegas, The Entertainment Capitol of the World, is hosting a 20-day live webcast to raise awareness for the plight of small Internet broadcasters. Countdown to Save Internet Radio can be seen and heard beginning October 1 at www.saveinternetradio.net.

The webcast will feature a mix of music (80's, 90's and today), talk, interviews and fun. There will also be daily updates and special reports pertaining to the Internet Radio Fairness Act (H.R.5285) and (H.R.5469), the recently announced bill to provide a six-month stay of all obligations of webcasters and broadcasters to pay performance fee royalties while an appeal is pending. Proceeds from the webcast will benefit the International Webcasting Association Legal Defense Fund.

In addition, a fund raising and awareness campaign will begin with a webcast supported by the IWA beginning on Tuesday, Oct. 1 in Las Vegas. Committee members Ann Gabriel of Gabriel Media and Scott Jamar of All Bass Radio are going to be hosting a continuing webcast at a public location in Las Vegas and asking for people to donate to the legal defense fund and sign letters of support for the Internet Radio Fairness Act. [www.saveinternetradio.us]

The Devil's in the Details or the Ongoing Saga of Internet Radio and RIAA

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 21:59:41 GMT

The Devil's in the Details
or the Ongoing Saga of Internet Radio and RIAA

It appears someone has grabbed the webcasters and RIAA representatives by the scruff of the neck, thrown them into a conference room and told them to "negotiate a fair settlement or else." Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) who chairs the House Judiciary Committee and sponsored Bill HR5469, has pulled the bill from the voting schedule.

Rumors have it the two groups are finally talking about a deal based on a percentage of webcasters' revenues vs. the per-play model. If an agreement is reached it will over ride the Library of Congress' original webcast royality arrangement, which would virtually run out all internet radio stations out of business and straight into bankruptcy. [More as this is developing.]

Humor Here: It appears the Onion has decided to take on Hilary Rosen of the RIAA and the DMCA issue in their own way by suing radio stations for giving away free music. Ha-Ha!

Yes, The Devil is in the Details...

Thu, 19 Sep 2002 23:23:05 GMT

Yes, The Devil is in the Details...
in plain English

Because of I've been off working on other projects, I had not read the details of the new LOC Reporting Requirements, until I talked to Doc yesterday. Now that I've had time to kick back and go over them, here's my 25 cents on the subject.

The Library of Congress has issued the Interim (temporary) Recordkeeping Requirements for Transmission of music over Internet Radio. What this means is the Library of Congress has FINALLY told the Internet Webcasters and Radio people exactly what information they must submit in their reports to levy the Copyright fees for usage. Or at least for the time being.

What I've read shows me SOMEONE at the LOC has some common sense. They appear to want to assist the webcasters in complying with the Law. Whether we like the Law or not, is another debate for another day.

As it sits now, the list of information the LOC wants is very short compared to the unreasonable volume of information the RIAA and LOC had wanted originally. (I can't find the original URL.)

The New Requirements include:

"the name of the service submitting the report
the transmission category of the service [i.e., a single letter code identifying the nature of the service transmitting the performance, e.g., Eligible nonsubscription transmission by webcaster of over-the-air AM or FM radio broadcast, other eligible nonsubscription transmission by a webcaster, eligible nonsubscription transmission by commercial broadcaster of over-the-air AM or FM radio broadcast, eligible nonsubscription transmission by non-CPB, noncommercial broadcaster, etc.]
for each sound recording transmitted by the service during the relevant period:

the featured recording artist
the sound recording title
the name of the record album containing the sound recording, if in the possession of the service, or supplied to the service, at or before the time of the performance
the marketing label of the sound recording, if in the possession of the service, or supplied to the service, at or before the time of the performance; and
the total number of performances of the sound recording during the relevant reporting period." [LOC Requirements]

The original taxonomy of information they had wanted submitted was impossible to collect. 99.44% of the webcasters could never have complied with the requirements. So someone at the LOC got the clue.

"The interim requirements are likely to require each service to report the following information for a certain period of time during each calendar quarter:" [LOC Requirements]

This too is also good. The current requirements are very similar to those required by traditional radio broadcasters. This includes limiting the reporting periods to a small period of time every quarter vs. forcing internet radio broadcasters and the radio stations who simulcast to report each and every song they webcast 24/7/365. I call that a serious reduction in paperwork and data collection.

Other than money, one of the webcaster's major gripes at the LOC Roundtable Meeting was that no reporting software in existence could generate the volume of information RIAA and SoundExchange had wanted the LOC to collect. When it came to older or independent recordings the information they were demanding did not exist at all.

In my opinion expressed to the LOC, it was a very unreasonable request of the Government to put the burden of responsibility on the webcasters to collect all the information that SoundExchange demanded be given to them through the LOC. No one including the LOC had ever collected and complied all of the information they wanted. There was no funds to pay someone to do the task. So the LOC got real and modified and scaled back the reporting taxonomy of information so that it fit a the broadcast model.

While I still disagree with the LOC on the fees being charged Internet Radio Stations and the additional fees being levied on Broadcast Radio Stations who simulcast, the LOC has with this Ruling made it possible for the webcasters to obtain reasonably priced software to collect and report the information to the LOC.

The LOC will be releasing the Requirements for Ephemeral Recordings of music shortly.

CARP Sticks a Fork in Internet Radi

Fri, 26 Jul 2002 10:53:48 GMT

The Devil is In the Details

CARP Sticks a Fork in Internet Radio.

Tonight it came to my attention that Kurt Hanson has been tracking the number of webcasters and internet radio stations going offline since the Final CARP Decision made by the Library of Congress on June 20, 2002. This decision issued a determination on proposed performance royalties webcasters will be forced to pay record companies and artists for the right to stream their music on the Internet. It is a fact of life that this royalty rate is so high that it will bankrupt the independant and college stations you have listened to in the past.

Here is the list of silenced stations by CARP as of July 11, 2002 (source Kurthanson.com)

3FM/Netherlands	All80s.com	AudioCandy.com
BlueMars.org	Celtic Heritage Webradio	Chez Whitey
Entercom stations	Good Time Oldies Radio	Greater Media stations
GrrlRadio	HitRadio.biz	Hot Hit Radio
IdahosCast.com	KDFC/San Francisco	KKDV/San Francisco
KOIT/San Francisco	KTRS/St. Louis	Lotus Radio stations
McClure stations	MonkeyRadio.org	MYNDFK.com
NetRockRadio.com	NextMedia stations	Perkigoth.com
Powerrocks.com	Progrock.com	Radio1/Netherlands
RadioCentral.com	Radio Free Akron	Radio Free BD
Radio Free Tiny Pineapple	RadioMaxMusic
RKNA: Aural Arcana	SavageRockRadio.com	Simmons Media stations
SomaFM.com	StarDogRadio.com	TagsTrance.com
The City Radio	therockfm.com	The Zoo
WAAF/Worchester	WMMR/Philadelphia	WOVRadio.com
XTC Radio	Yahoo! Radio stations

Public Stations now off line: KWJC-MO; WRSU-NJ; WERS-MA; KTSW-TX; WSUM-WI; WSTB-OH; WONB-OH; WXOU-MI; WZIP-OH; WUTK-TN; KDIC-IA; KETR-TX; WSBF-SC; WRMC-VT; KSDS-CA; WNYU-NY; WSUW-WI; WEVL-TN; KRCL-UT; WSRN-PA; KXCI-AZ; WUVT-VA; KSJS-CA; KDHX-MI; WPTS-PA; KBCS-WA; WMHW-MI; KBVR-OR; KXRJ-AR; WDWN-NY

Silenced iM Network affiliates: Zydeco to the Bone; Nuevo Wave-O; Jazzeteria; Altrok.com; Celtic to the Bone; Extra Smooth Symphonie; Melancholia; Qawwali-On-Demand; 60s RnB to the Bone; Just Classic Rock; All Top40 Hits; Piecemeal; Swing Central; Cafe Twilight; Jazz to the Bone; Drone Sickness; Gospel to the Bone; Truly Cool, Cool Jazz; 400 Years of Hits

Jazz to the Bone; Hot Bubblegum 100; Dream Chamber; Modern A Cappella; African to the Bone; Hillbilly Radio; Cajun N Country to the Bone; X-tra Energy Dance; World Intensity; New Orleans to the Bone; Modern Rock Hits; Rastaman's Reggae

MainLine Rock; Latin to the Bone; House Party; Love Field; Planet Musiquarium; The Breakbeat Jungle; Succubus; Bollywood; Club Reggae; Hyperspace; Murder, Betrayal and Redemption; Top RnB Hits; ChitrapatSangeet; Resonant Radio; Sweet Revenge

Female Voices; Old Dawg Country; EnginesOfReagan; Lovecats; Muddy Channel; Movie Music; Adventures In Radio; Truly Alternative; Alt Songsters to the Bone; Spacerant; Trance-ilvania; Vox Radium; 50s RnB to the Bone; Box O Bone's; Digitalis; darcade; Not AA Radio; Busted Heart Radio; Shuaku No Bi; Hillbilly Radio; Kickin' Kountry; Cyberspace Sonata; Solvent Loud Radio.

What can you do?

Congress leaves for Summer Recess July 26, the Senate leaves August 2, 2002: so time is short. A group of webcasters and industry trade groups have formed VOW Voice on Webcasters. The site is a common ground for people to gather information from a supposed central source. At the moment the site is lacking a considerable amount historical information prior to the CARP Decision, however it does have one jewel worth following--

It allows anyone to fax their U.S. Congressmen and Senators a letter regarding the silencing of Internet Radio for free. Pass this information along to your friends and associates, please.

CARP: Radio Stations Appeal Internet Royalty Decision

Tue, 16 Jul 2002 20:29:33 GMT

CARP: Radio Stations Appeal Internet Royalty Decision

Reuter's is reporting that the Radio stations have asked a federal appeals court to rule that they do not have to pay musicians and recording companies when they play music on the Internet because they do not pay royalties for regular over-the-air broadcasts.

The ball is now officially in play. The appeal was filed by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB,) and Bonneville International Corp., Clear Channel Communications Inc, Cox Radio Inc, Emmis Communications Corp, Entercom Communications Corp and Susquehanna Radio Corp. None of which has a record label, I believe.

The webcasters have not joined this appeal. Nor have they filed their own court case-- yet. I suspect it's coming very soon. RIAA has made no comment yet.

It is going to be a hot summer in the Court House this summer!

The Devil's in The Details: Intellectual Property and the Internet

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 21:45:23 GMT

The Devil's in The Details: Intellectual Property and the Internet

This is a collection of what's been happening over the past several days in the Intellectual Property - Internet World.

US Dept of Commerce: "On July 17, 2002, the Technology Administration will host a Public Workshop on Digital Entertainment and Rights Management. This Workshop will bring together leaders from the information technology and content industries to address the status of technical standards that provide the framework necessary to enable legitimate digital media distribution and the present state of strengths, weaknesses and availability of current and imminent technological solutions to protect digital content, barriers that are inhibiting movies, music and games from coming online. In preparation for this workshop, the Technology Administration invites public comment." We need to get the REAL PUBLIC to comment on this now.
The Final Rule and Order of the Library of Congress Copyright office on the Determination of Reasonable Rates and Terms for the Digital Performance of Sound Recordings and Ephemeral Recordings was submitted to the Federal Register on Monday. As Doc says: "Here's the tea. There's the harbor. Have at it." All I can add is: Amen.
Rep. Rick Boucher chided the music industry in his keynote speech from Jupiter's PlugIn conference. He spoke about multiple anti-customer initiatives, CD protection, DMCA, copyright extensions, etc. He rightly pointed out that all the technical and legal efforts are actually only serving to push people toward free file-sharing services.

Of course, Hilary Rosen, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America disagrees. Why am I getting the opinion Rosen is so disconnected from the artists and the customers, she is hopeless? Or is she a victim of her own PR? Jenny's got a good opinion on the situation here.
Doc has asked the question: Do these webcasting fees only apply to acts signed to RIAA labels? The answer to this is actually not well known, but something I "found" during the Town Hall Webcast on CARP-- Sound Exchange was formed by the RIAA as a non-profit agency of the RIAA to act as a designated "agent" for the industry. Sound Exchange/RIAA made some arrangement with the Library of Congress to be named (designated) Agent to receive the CARP funds for all artists. It was also stated that Sound Exchange would be charged with the mission of trying to find every artist or their estate who was entitled to received the fees. This included artists who were unsigned with any record company/label, minus a percentage for handling the transaction, of course.

This leads me to ask two questions: 1. How much effort will Sound Exchange make to "find" the unsigned artists? 2. How long will the LOC allow Sound Exchange to sit on undistributed fees (earning interest of course) before they get to keep it? Or give it back to the LOC?
As I reported earlier Time Warner Cable in NYC is sending nastygrams to cable customers who are sharing their WiFi with their friends and neighbors. Who in the hell appointed AOL/TW god this month? Oh yeah, these are the wizkids who told us it was "stealing" to not watch the commericals when we Tivo shows. Tell 'em to go to hell. [See Mary Lu bite the hand that ~~feeds~~ used to feed her.]

John Robb's quote: Did a Time Warner VP really say this?

"By having an open transmission, it leaves you really vulnerable," Digeso said. "If you have a Wi-Fi connection in a public park, what would stop, God forbid, a child pornographer or, God forbid, a terrorist using that network?

Yep. And AOL used to get worried to when Steve Case opened his mouth in public, because it would come back to bite them in the butt. Looks like they have something new to worry about.

Universal To Allow Music File Burning

Tue, 09 Jul 2002 20:39:45 GMT

Vivendi Universal To Allow Music File Burning
And the music companies said they weren't interested in allowing customers to burn their own CD's...

Even as media conglomerate Vivendi Universal struggles with its corporate issues, the company's music arm announced that it would work with its digital music operation to offer subscription music downloads, reports Reuters.

Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said it would offer the content of about 1,000 of its albums, primarily from its back catalog, through EMusic.com, a unit of Vivendi Universal Net USA.

The titles from Universal Music would be integrated into EMusic's service, which offers unlimited access to over 200,000 songs in the standard MP3 format for anywhere from $9.99 to $14.99 per month.

EMusic subscribers gain full rights to burn the files they have downloaded onto CDs or to transfer them to portable music players, as opposed to some other subscription music services, which place restrictions on how and where the files can be transferred and used.

C Crane's Digital FM Transmitter

Mon, 08 Jul 2002 19:27:56 GMT

C Crane's Digital FM Transmitter

Doc! Dave! The rest of you reading along... If you've been looking for a fully contained FM Transmitter for your iPod, MP3 player, internet streams, even your AM radio in steel office building, this is probably the transmitter for you. Chris Justice and the folks at C Crane have designed and built an low power digital FM Transmitter for those of us who don't want to build our own, ala Heath-Kit-type, and want one ready to go right out of the box.

For Doc's concern about wanting something that will allow him to select whatever FM frequency, between 88-108 MHz, his little heart desires, this is it.

For those of you wanting to be able to play it in the house or in the car or God knows elsewhere, C Crane makes a Mobile Accessory Kit with car adapter and other goodies to make it really mobil. Yep! This is it.

Yes it's a $100. However C Crane's reputation for customer service and standing behind their products may make it worthwhile.

On the Lighter Side of Content Control

Fri, 31 May 2002 11:04:37 GMT

On the Lighter Side of Content Control:

The Peanut Gallery's reporting: "On a side note, this little item at Restoration Hardware is very popular. "

Hoist on Their Own Petard: Record industry unveils music format that can't be played in any computer. From urbanreflex.com [Over the Edge]

No lie. This one's even analogue! I hate to mention this but the Thrift Shop over at the hospital Doug works at has three or four of these beauties for sale for less than $25.00.

Sony Music Lobbies for Ban on Markers - By Brian Briggs

Fri, 24 May 2002 07:00:57 GMT

Sony Music Lobbies for Ban on Markers - By Brian Briggs

Washington DC - Ralph Hughes of Sony Music testified in the Senate today urging lawmakers to enact legislation which would ban felt tip markers. "These innocuous looking writing instruments are the scourge of our society," he said holding up a Sharpie. "Not only can this black stick of death be used to violate the DMCA, but it could also be used to write the instructions to incubate the anthrax virus."

Didn't I warn you this was going to happen?

CARP: It Ain't Over Yet

Thu, 23 May 2002 21:49:54 GMT

CARP: It is Not Over Yet

While Doc, David and everyone are doing the happy dance on LOC CARP Order. The reality check is: the party isn't over folks! CARP is not dead yet.

CARP is in the hands of the Registrar of the Library of Congress, Mary Beth Peters, and the IP lawyers of the LOC. Their mission is to use the "Wisdom of Solomon" and write a fair and reasonable version of what the webcasting rates should be.

Furthermore, I do hope Peters understood the webcaster's message at the Roundtable Meeting, and she is able to separate the passion from the potential compromise and solutions that were proposed, but sometimes were lost in the rhetoric of the day.

Should this new rate structure not be satisfactory to both RIAA/SoundExchange and the webcasters, it could all end up in the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals for a long and expensive court battle.

It's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

CARP is Rejected by Librarian of Congress 30 Day Clock is Now Ticking

Tue, 21 May 2002 23:04:09 GMT

Round 2: CARP is Rejected by Librarian of Congress 30 Day Clock is Now Ticking

Mary Beth Peters, Registrar of the Library of Congress and Dr. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress issued the ORDER today at 10 AM Eastern Time rejecting the CARP webcasting rates presented on February 20, 2002. Now the LOC has 30 days to make their own Ruling on the matter which should be out on or before June 20, 2002.

It appears that the Public Roundtable held on May 10, and the flood of letters sent to the LOC made a definite impact on the decision makers (including the LOC and the Senate Judiciary Committee.) They learned first hand from the statements made to the LOC and Senate Committee that all webcasters, not only the large well funded ones, had not been given a fair and reasonable hearing. The LOC learned that if they adopted the Ruling of February 20, 2002 a considerable number of webcasters, including non-commercial and college webcasters, would have been put out of business.

By hurting the small independent webcaster who had been shut out of the Ruling process would have been a clear cut case of averting the wishes of the Judiciary Committees wishes by adversely hurting small business.

Passion clouds the facts: the other major item the Roundtable exposed the LOC to was the fact that RIAA and the Webcasters had come to some agreements on the entitlement of the artists to be paid something for their works, and agreement regarding the problems surrounding the original reporting requirements. The solutions are not clear cut, but the potential for compromises were set out at the Roundtable.

At this point we have a 30-day waiting period to see what the Librarian of Congress is going to rule.

From where I sit everyone needs to maintain our honest resolve for a long term solution. Most do not understand that this CARP ruling is only good for a 2 year period that is ENDING this year. We actually should be working on negotiating the next two year CARP rates now. But because this Order is precedence setting in order to establish rates, the new CARP II rates will end up being delayed until they have something concrete to discuss.

Hopefully RIAA and the Webcasters will get together to discuss some voluntary compromises as well. As Bill Goldsmith of KPIG.com and RadioParadise.com put it,

" The record labels can either play fair now - or be forced to by Congress and the Copyright Office."

Because if the Ruling is unsatisfactory to any of the parties, even after the Librarian of Congress issues it in June 2002, the new CARP rates could end up in the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals for a hearing.

A Bad, Sad Hollywood Ending: Don't vote for Hollings either

Sun, 19 May 2002 10:24:34 GMT

Business Week: A Bad, Sad Hollywood Ending. [Doc Searls Weblog]

Forget about Bill Gates, folks. The biggest enemy of free software may be Senator Ernest F. Hollings. Legislation introduced in March, 2002, by the South Carolina Democrat to require that copyright-protection software be embedded in PCs, handheld computers, CD players -- and anything else that can play, record, or manipulate data -- could make open-source software such as the Linux operating system illegal. Uh huh... Those of you in Hollings-homeland might want to review what we are planning to do to Feinstein's re-election plans and do the same in your neighborhood.

Senate Judiciary Committee held

Thu, 16 May 2002 04:29:38 GMT

Senate Judiciary Committee held "Copyright Royalties: Where is the Right Spot On The Dial For Webcasting. " hearings today in Washington, D.C..

The entire hearing was webcast. Links to the webcast are on the announcement page.

Senator Orran Hatch and Patrick Leahy made remarks.

The cast of characters testifying include:
Ms. Hilary Rosen, President and Chief Executive Officer, Recording Industry Association of America, Washington, DC
Mr. Jon Potter, Executive Director, The Digital Media Association, Washington, DC
Mr. Bill Rose, VP and General Manager of Webcast Services, Arbitron, New York, NY
Mr. Frank Schliemann, Founder, Onion River Radio, Montpelier, VT
Mr. Billy Straus, President, Websound.com, Brattleboro, VT
Dan Navarro, Artist, American Federation Of Television and Radio Artists, New York, NY

Give a listen to the webcast which starts about 20 minutes into the webcast because of Senator Hatch being delayed.

There is a considerable amount of Point of View information in this hearing. Comments?

Trade Groups File Friend of the Court Briefs About Viewer Tracking

Thu, 16 May 2002 03:42:10 GMT

Trade Groups File Friend of the Court Briefs About Viewer Tracking - The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), and Information Technology Association of America (ITAA) filed the Friend of the Court Brief, noting that the judge's order establishes a harmful "principle of judicial intervention in technology design."

The leading high tech trade associations has criticized a District Court order that requires interactive television companies to track the viewing behavior of their customers. The group filed an amici brief today in the case of Paramount Pictures Corporation et al. versus Replay TV, Inc. et al.

"When the courts take on the role of software engineer, software engineers and consumers need to start worrying. Not only is the potential for unintended consequences extremely high, but the decision also sets dangerous precedents. In a time when consumer 'trust' is central to industry success, forcing companies to abandon their contracts with consumers could be catastrophic. In addition, such court-ordered redesign could effectively bankrupt smaller technology companies with limited resources. With so much at stake for the industry and consumers, it is disturbing that the court would take this decision so lightly," said Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology.

A copy of the brief is available on the web here.

Clueless Hollywood: The State of The Very Rich and Uninformed

Thu, 16 May 2002 01:12:24 GMT

Clueless Hollywood: The State of The Very Rich and Uninformed

"The clue train stopped there four times a day for ten years and they never took delivery."
— Veteran of a firm now free-falling out of the Fortune 500 - Cluetrain Website

This past week as marked several events which are showing everyone in the technology world just how uninformed the Hollywood executive set are.

Mom always said, "Money is no replacement for an education or experience." And damn she was so right! The recent rounds of Senate Subcommittee meetings and townhall meetings, Roundtable meeting and articles, stories and press releases in the media involving CARP and the DMCA show us just how little they know and how dangerous this lack-a-knowledge can really be.

From where I sit it's long overdue for these Hollywood executives to get an education or stop playing dumb. They can't have it both ways.

For years Hollywood has been courting the computer industry in an effort to make the work and costs of productions better and cheaper. The courting and wooing of Silicon Valley and the technical centers of this country by Hollywood was a past time that has gone on for the past 15 or more years. I know because I was there. I have been a designer, witness and a participant to the process.

Over 12 years ago I wrote up a short paper on the Convergence of Digital Media outlining in general details the use of computers and digital storage for audio, video and film transfer. I outlined how peer-to-peer direct connection products could and would make it possible for someone like me, who hates the drive in and out of LA, would be able to work from my home studio with others in their home studios all by way of a proper high-speed internet connection. Nearly everything but "finaling" a piece could be done in this manner. This would save vast amounts of production costs and make it possible for work to be done by the best people wherever they were living. .

For me it was ideal and from my point of view the idea was nothing remarkable. The concept was just a logical extension of the way I had worked before on parts of a production using the internet or closed network service. I had done it before-- but we'd really never told anyone. We just did it and kept our word that nothing would ever get out into the public were it didn't belong.

However when I published the paper online, you would have thought I'd committed blasphemy.

Why? Because I dared to take the "control" of a production out of the realm of the "post house." I was advocating that editors, special effects people and directors could work better remotely and alone in the post production process without the direct supervision and control of a post house. Post houses who are very highly capitalized digital editing facilities rent a considerable amount of space to production companies while producing a television, audio or film product saw this "idea" as a threat to their gravytrain and did nearly everything possible to kill it.

Or so they thought. ...And the Hollywood executives remained clueless by choice.

Byting the Hand the Feeds You

Over the past several years, since I vowed never to drive into LA again for work, I've taken projects that allow me to edit only if I can do the work remotely in my bunny slippers at home. Meetings are normally over the phone and occasional trips into the studios are made for the important, but rare, face to face meeting. And I'm not the only one doing it! Literally hundreds of video, film and audio professionals work everyday at home recording, tweaking, cutting and logging thousands of hours of music, film, graphics and video from the sanity of their home or home studio in an environment where they want to work-- and work very productively.

Over 75% of the tools we use are stock, off the shelf software and compression codecs, like Mp3s and video formats. And we transfer our work to one another by FedEx or using the internet.

The funny thing is: every DMCA crazed Hollywood executive knows we do it. So how do you propose we put the genie back into the bottle?

There isn't a beancounter in LA who will tell an executive straightfaced that we remote-working folks aren't saving Hollywood money. Between us and the Vancouver productions, we are the reasons why Hollywood has been laying off the large in-house staff people who once ran up their payroll. The exec's like Eisner love that we use this technology to give him better profit lines.

So who's he kidding? Oh yeah-- it's a matter of control.

Eisner and his Hollywood cronies want to control who has the technology. That who is YOU the customer. It's a shame he still hasn't learned the lesson on how to put the genie back into the bottle. Because-- you can't.

Comments?

Doc's view of the Copyrighteous Gathering

Wed, 15 May 2002 11:32:53 GMT

Doc Searls Weblog Reports: A gathering of the copyrighteous

Declan is circulating a '"celebration" of the DMCA on May 16 in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington. Hosted by Jack Valenti, Hilary Rosen and chiefs of various publishing, film and other organizations in the business of advocating the maximal leverage of intellectual property law. The "invited guests" include ... what is that, the Judiciary Committee? Biden, Hatch, Helms, Leahy, Coble, Berman, Conyers, Dingle, Hyde, Frank, Markey, Sensenbrenner and Tauzin. Plus Ambassadors from 33 countries, none, oddly, in downtown Europe.

Not you, me, or any artists, writers, film makers and other first sources of "content."

No lie. From the invitation list it appears to be a Who's Who of the Clueless. If they were to invite us, it might surprise them to learn the real truth. Heaven forbid.

Round 2: Webcasters Meet with Industry at CARP Roundtable Today

Fri, 10 May 2002 11:38:03 GMT

Round 2: Webcasters Meet with Industry at CARP Roundtable Today

Today a historic meeting is taking place inwhich the webcasters and recording industry officials are meeting in a Roundtable Discussion with the Library of Congress' CARP panel. The meetings will take place all day long from 9 AM to 5 PM in Washington DC. The International Webcasters Association in cooperation with TVWorldwide.com will be streaming the entire meeting to the internet.

To find the connection, please log into http://www.tvworldwide.com/event_iwa_020509.cfm and click on the "Click here for Live Video" icon. Should you be unable to hear the webcast live, they will archive the days events and put them online for replay later in the day.

Panel Speakers for the US Copyright Office Roundtable are:

Panel I Reporting to Determine Royalty Allocation	Panel II Reporting to Monitor Compliance with Terms of License	Panel III Small Businesses
Future of Music Coalition (Jenny Toomey)	Music Choice (Amy Bushyeager)	WCPE (Deborah Proctor)
Recording Industry Association of America (Steve Marks or other)	DMX Music, Inc. (Barry Knittel)	Arbitron (Joan FitzGerald)
SoundExchange (John Simson or other)	Muzak (Chuck Walker)	Spacial AudioSolutions (Bryan Payne)
Digital Media Association (Jonathan Potter or other)	Digital Media Association (Jonathan Potter or other)	RAS Records (Gary Himelfarb)
National Association of Broadcasters et al. (Bruce Joseph)	Yahoo! (Alex Maghen)	Collegiate Broadcasters, Inc. (Will Robedee)
Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (Frederick Kass or William Malone)	Ultimate 80s (Dave Landis)	Future of Music Coalition (Brian Zisk)
ASCAP (Sam Mosenkis or Chris Amenita)	iM Radio (MaryMcCann)	SoundExchange (John Simson or other)
Websound (Glen Fisher)	XM Satellite Radio & Sirius Satellite Radio (Bruce Joseph)	Massanutten Broadcasting System, Inc. (David Eshleman)
American Federation of Musicians (Patricia Polach)	Recording Industry Association of America (Steve Marks or other)	University of Louisiana at Monroe/KXUL (Joel Willer)
Beethoven.com (Kevin Shively)	SoundExchange (John Simson or other)	RAIN Publications (Kurt Hanson or Paul Maloney)
Yahoo! (Alex Maghen)	American Federation of Musicians (Patricia Polach)	International Webcasting Association (Peggy Miles)
Radio Computing Services, Inc. (Elliot Mazer)	Clear Channel (Brian Parsons or Karyn Ablin)	American Federation of Musicians (Patricia Polach)
3WK LLC (Wanda Atkinson)	Twangcast.com (Michael Hays)	Digitally Imported Radio (Gary Dobek)
MediaUnbound, Inc. (Michael Papish)	International Webcasters Association (Brad Pumphrey)	Radioio.com (Mike Roe)
DMX Music, Inc. (Barry Knittel)	IBC (Joseph Buczynski)	Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Martin Gelfand)

CARP - Webcasters Town Meeting in Washington D.C.

Fri, 10 May 2002 04:51:00 GMT

CARP - Webcasters Town Meeting in Washington D.C.

IWA dedicated the second in a series of on-line Worldwide Town Meetings of Webcasters to the implications of the Copyright Office recommendations known as CARP that was webcasted live today from Washington, D.C. The broadcast was made possible by various sponsors and the assistance of TVWorldwide.com who is hosting the webcasts.

The Archived Webcast in Real Format is available by clicking here. The Webcast is 3hrs and 18 minutes long

From where I sit, this is one of the most important webcasts ever done to date. This webcast answers many of the questions and explains in plain language what will happen to webcasting if CARP is adopted in its current form.

There are five panel sessions in the webcast

1:00-1:15 PM Welcome and opening remarks
Introduction of Sponsors

Dave Gardy, TVWorldwide.com
Susan Pickering, Executive Director, IWA

1:15-2:00 PM Overview of CARP and Royalty Issues and State of the Webcast Industry
What is the big picture and what is at stake?

Moderator Peggy Miles, Intervox
Panelists David Lawrence, Radio Host On-Line Tonight
Roger Dean Lehman Bros., Chairman IWA
Heather Shay-Peters, Radiodelray.com
David Landis, Ultimate 80's
John Simson Sound Exchange

2:00-2:30 PM Legal and Regulatory Facts Surrounding CARP
Where are we in the process and how does it work?

Moderator Dave Oxenford, Shaw Pittman
Panelists Karin Ablin, Wiley Rein & Felding
Dineen Wasylik, Wiley Rein & Felding
TBD

2:30-3:00 PM Technology Issues and the State-of-the-Art in the Webcasting Industry
What technologies are changing the face of webcasting?

Moderator Dave Gardy, TVWorldwide.com
Panelists Ken Santucci, Amprod
Mark Maxey TVWorldwide.com, formerly with Digital Island, Akamai
Doug Wyllie Streaming Magazine

3:00-4:00 PM The Call to Action: What the Webcasting Industry Must do Next
What Now?

Moderator Peggy Miles, Intervox
Panelists Dave Oxenford, Shaw Pittman
Steve Wolf, Professional Products
Dave Gardy, TVWorldwide.com
David Lawrence, Radio Host On-Line Tonight
Heather Shay-Peters, Radiodelray.com
Bill Goldsmith, Radio Paradise.com
Steve Wolf, WOLF FM Radio.com

Interactive Town Hall Meeting of Webcasters May 9 1PM-4 PM EDT

Thu, 09 May 2002 12:40:29 GMT

Make Sushi out of CARP!

Reminder: International Webcasting Association to Rally Membership on Copyright Controversy with Two Webcasts, Live from Washington DC TVWorldwide.com Tapped to Stream Interactive Town Hall Meeting of Webcasters May 9, 1PM-4 PM EDT and Coverage of U.S. Copyright Office Roundtable May 10 9AM-5PM EDT - For the entire press release click here!

Webcasting Information on CARP ROUNDTABLE

Tue, 07 May 2002 11:49:36 GMT

While I rarely reprint press releases directly this one is important. Please spread the word.

TVWORLDWIDE.COM - PRESS RELEASE

International Webcasting Association to Rally Membership on Copyright Controversy with Two Webcasts, Live from Washington DC TVWorldwide.com Tapped to Stream Interactive Town Hall Meeting of Webcasters May 9, and Coverage of U.S. Copyright Office Roundtable May 10

For Immediate Release
Contact: Beverly O'Brien TV Worldwide.com, Inc. Beverly@tvworldwide.com www.tvworldwide.com
(703) 961-9250 Ext. 222

Susan Pickering International Webcasting Association Spickering@webcasters.org www.webcasters.org
(866) 274-1732 ext 2690

Chantilly, Va. - Deploying the very technology that gave birth to the industry it represents, The International Webcasting Association (IWA), in cooperation with TVWorldwide.com announced a joint effort to produce two webcasts on important copyright issues that may change the face of the webcast industry. In an effort to unite and inform its members and the webcasting industry at large, the IWA will dedicate the second in a series of on-line Worldwide Town Meetings of Webcasters to the implications of the Copyright Office recommendations. This will be webcast on May 9 from 1PM-4 PM EDT. This will be followed the next day with live coverage of the U.S. Copyright Office's important roundtable discussion on the proposed guidelines for webcasters to give the required notice of copyrighted material they webcast and to maintain webcast records. The roundtable will be held May 10 from 9AM-5PM EDT.

Both webcasts will originate from Washington D.C. and be freely available at www.webcasters.org and www.tvworldwide.com. Event sponsors include Streaming Magazine, the nationally syndicated "On-Line Tonight" radio show featuring David Lawrence and other sponsors currently lining up to support the webcasts.

Visitors to the live Worldwide Town Meeting of Webcasters will be able to post questions to the panel and participate by submitting questions and comments chat and e-mail, thus providing a fully interactive forum for those unable to attend or who are simply interested in learning more about the issues.

Roger Dean, Chairman of the IWA said, "We're excited to be able to bring our industry together for these important events in a format that actually showcases the benefits from webcasting. We've again teamed with TVWorldwide.com to webcast the event because of their vast expertise in streaming successful interactive events via Internet TV."

"This is a defining moment for our industry," stated Susan Pickering, Executive Director of the IWA stated. "We're demonstrating the potential of the very medium we work in every day as we create awareness of these issues. Its crucial to ensure our membership and all webcasters have access to the process taking place surrounding the copyright issues."

"We're pleased to work with the IWA on this historical first in streaming video," stated Dave Gardy, Chairman and CEO of TVWorldwide.com. "We're getting a huge response to these events nationally and the U.S. Copyright Office has been very responsive in working with us to facilitate coverage of the roundtable. We look forward to once again working with the IWA as they practice what they preach in utilizing webcasts to serve their membership."

The 1998 Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) established that webcasters must pay "performance rights" fees to record labels for the music they play and instructed the Copyright Office to set the appropriate rate, which turned the matter over to a Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) to propose what those rates should be. Industry observers have pointed out that the CARP's recommended rates are significantly more than 100% of most webcasters gross revenues. The Librarian of Congress has until May 21, 2002 to decide whether to accept, reject or modify the CARP's findings.

"If they accept the CARP panel's recommendation, many observers believe that the decision will effectively kill Internet Radio as an industry, as the decision could bankrupt all but the three or four largest webcasters," commented Pickering.

The event will be compressed and archived for viewing at www.webcasters.org and www.tvworldwide.com. Participants should have the free Real Player installed and should log on 15 minutes prior to each event. Questions can be directed to 703-961-9250, ext 223 before and during the events.

As a leading streaming video applications service provider, TVWorldwide.com is developing a network of video channels that is an affiliation of community-based Internet television stations, each underwritten by a strategic partner, "aimcastingsm" to targeted B2B and special interest demographic audiences worldwide. TVWorldwide.com works with strategic partners to develop the latest in live and archived state-of-the art video streaming content applications. TVWorldwide.com was recently named one of the streaming video industry's "Hottest Streaming Companies" by Streaming Magazine, www.streamingmagazine.com.

The International Webcasting Association (IWA) is a worldwide non-profit trade organization dedicated to the growth and development of the art, technology and commerce of webcasting and streaming media over the Internet and other networks. The IWA, headquartered in Washington, DC ( www.webcasters.org ), represents members throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada and Australia. The IWA works to keep members informed, connected, and better prepared for the changes that are an integral part of the technology.