CARP Rejected!.

Yay Librarian of Congress!

"On February 20, 2002, the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) reported its determination to the Librarian of Congress in the above-captioned proceeding. In accordance with 17 U.S.C. 802(f), the Librarian is given 90 days from date of delivery of a CARP report to review the determination and issue a decision setting forth the final royalty fee and terms of payment. However, if the Librarian rejects the CARP's determination, section 802(f) provides an additional 30 days for the Librarian to render his final determination.

The Register of Copyrights recommends, and the Librarian agrees, that the CARP's determination must be rejected. A final decision will be issued no later than June 20, 2002."

[The Shifted Librarian]

This is fantastic news, as CARP would have unfairly hampered online broadcasts of music. What is interesting is that the RIAA appears to have used precident to negotiate fees at what is described as as a "sweet spot." [p 58] Siad sweet spot is not a legal precident, but the rate that others are willing to pay.

RIAA meticulously crafted confidentiality clauses for each and every license agreement. These clauses prohibit any licensee from discussing the terms and conditions of the agreement with other parties. See RIAA Exs. 60 DR- 84 DR. But it simultaneously reserved its own right to use each agreement however it wished at the CARP proceeding. See id. These clauses belie the notion that RIAA’s primary29 concern was to establish precedents for other potential licensees.

As we have noted, in the statutory marketplace, one would expect to find some buyers - for various reasons – that are willing to pay higher rates for a product than most other buyers pay. But, if a seller is in a position to temporarily sacrifice volume, it can afford to negotiate deals only with those buyers willing to pay above-market rates. By engaging in this conduct, the Panel finds, RIAA created a virtually uniform precedent
with rates above those that most buyers would be willing to pay. 30

Wow. Way to be a bunch of low down knobs, RIAA. Congrats, I'm buying nothing but used cds from now on, and T shirts for the bands I like as well as going to their concerts.

9:28:38 AM