Usage rights for music, including copyright, vary quite a bit for
different countries. I am in the US. A few years ago I talked to an
employee of a company that has 3 local radio stations and streams
music and other programs from all 3 online. He said that they use a
company to stream all three and that takes care of all of the paper
work needed for rights. For example, they have to keep track of how
many times each song is played online and what the needed payments
are. For example, depending on age and other factors, fees may be due
for the composition, for the instrumental and vocal artists, for
possible revised versions of the music, for the owners of the music,
etc. Since all of this would require too much work for small to medium
sized media companies, many use such a service. This all very tricky.
For example, one might think music recorded in the late 1900s would
surely be free from usage fees, but that may not be the case! For
example, there have been many transfers of very old music to CD or LP,
and the company releasing this music may be due usage fees because
this is a new version of the music that has been restored. If a
streaming radio services does not handle the payment of usage fees
properly, they very likely will be sued.
For private web sites that do not sell things including music for
profit, the same usage rights often apply. What can happen here, is
that a rights owner can complain to the owner of the server being used
for the music. The owner of the server or isp can then take down the
music at once and not be held liable for any usage rights. There is an
appeal process for the owner of the web page to prove that the music
is not subject to usage rights fees. There is so much music on the web
that this may not happen very often for low traffic private sites that
do not offer music sales or free downloads of the music. However in
the past going back to midi days, a few lawyers have searched the web
for music with rights not paid. When they find such a page, they then
go to the owner of the rights and offer to sue, for a fee of course,
The owner of the page likely will be sued in federal court in the
Hollywood area. This could be very inconvenient and costly for the
page owner. However the lawyer also likely will quote a large fee for
dropping the matter. A review of credit rating company reports of the
page owner will allow the lawyer to determine the maximum amount the
page owner can pay.
yeah yeah. Hvae you ever heard of blackmail and extortion?
One day you get a letter in the mail which states that legal action will be
taken if you fail to pay xyz law firm $10,000 for the rights to use the
music online.
That, my friend, is extortion.
Extort:
ex·tort
1. Law .
a.
to wrest or wring (money, information, etc.) from a person by violence,
intimidation, or abuse of authority; obtain by force, torture, threat, or
the like.
b.
to take illegally by reason of one's office.
2.
to compel (something) of a person or thing: Her wit and intelligence
extorted their admiration.
This is what the RIAA does. You get threatened with court action if you do
not pay. Sorry charlie, but I don't take threats likely. I will see your
ass in court. I will have the sheriff of your county come knocking on your
door and serve you with a warrant for extortion.
Do you use a library? Does a library pay the author of a work for keeping
his book on the shelf? Then make a payment when somebody takes it out?
I don't think so.
Why does youtube get away with hosting the same music online?
I got some of my mp3's from youtube.
You go into a store, and the store is playing a cd they have to offer for
sale. Are they going to pay a fee for doing so? I don't think so.
Now on my site, all I do is show the visitor what I have available.
I do not charge a dime. I do not stream. It is up to the visitor and make
the choice if he wants to listen to the music or not.
If they want to download, they can. For free.
Now let's say that I have a certain song on my site.
The recording company has since gone to the recycle bin.
Even though the work was renewed in 1988 (e.g), the author or copyright
owner is nowhere to be found.
Now to whom do I make payments?
And no, I'm not about to pay "per usage" either.
In the documentary movie about "Glenn Miller", the military badnleader,
there was a line I recall:
"Yeah dad, it's been good. We've sold two million copies and I get a nickel
for each sale."
"A nickel? Hell, thats a hundred thousand dollars!"
No, radio stations did not pay a dime because they aired the recording.
Artists get paid by the sales of the recording, not air time, or usage.
In my opinion, if a company is forcing a streaming radio station to keep
track of air play and pay accordingly, they are ripping off not only the
station, but the artist. As I'll bet not one dime of that money ever goes
to the artist.