SXSW Panel: using music online

Elise Nordling (IODA and Indie Pop Rocks! on SomaFM) hosted a panel on using music online, and all the steps you have to go through for podcasting; using music synchronized with video; videos and sound recordings of concert footage and of course internet radio royalties. A podcast of the panel will be available next week, but here are some pictures:

Elise Nordling, Brian Zisk, Rich Bengloff, Rusty Hodge, Chris MacDonald"

Rich Bengloff of A2IM and Sound Exchange board member talks with Rusty Hodge from SomaFM"

Rusty Hodge answering questions after the panel"

Here's what we learned from this panel: there is so much confusion in the legal use of using music online. Most people don't even know where to begin. Everyone wants to use music (and license and even pay for it) but it's not being "sold" in a way they can deal with it.

We could have done a whole day on the different sub-topics. People want to know. There are lots of people who want to use music online, and legally can't or don't know how to. So they end up just doing it illegally.

Note to music industry: start selling your product in a way that people want to buy it. Or they won't bother to buy it!

SXSW Panel: The Trials and Tribulations of Using Music Online

Be sure to come by the panel I'm on at SXSW: The Trials and Tribulations of Using Music Online.

This panel will discuss the usage of music for various online formats, including (but not limited to) podcasting, blog MP3 postings, internet radio, and vlogs (or other video). This session will address the different copyrights, licensing, and royalties associated with different types of use. Learn how and why you need to get copyright and/or licensing clearance for the music you use, and which clearances you need for which uses in order to operate legally. We will also discuss copyright royalties, royalty payments, and royalty collectors, including SoundExchange, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.

Should be fun. If you've never met Richard Bengloff (who heads up A2IM and is on the SoundExchange board and will be on this panel), he's a great guy who is amazingly knowledgeable about the music business, and genuinely cares about artists and content creators. Rich and I don't always agree, but I learn something every time I talk to him.

I can't wait. The other folks on the panel are all great as well (Brian Zisk and Chris MacDonald) as well as our moderator Elise Nordling (who besides programming and hosting Indie Pop Rocks works for IODA, an online music licensing company).

Room 10
Tuesday, March 11th
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm
South by Southwest, Austin, TX

Ray of Light For Internet Radio?

Jason Thomas at Crawdaddy Magazine has a great article on the state of net radio, here's a snippet:

The original laws were crafted in a time when technology was seen as having a limitless possibility to change everything about our lives, and much of the very things that the DMCA creates rules for were in states of infancy. Given the way the saga has unfolded over the last 12 years, the only way that harmony is going to be reached is either tossing out or amending the DMCA and, in doing so, re-evaluate exactly how the changes in technology have played out in the forms of digital media. There is little chance of fixing the tangle of existing legislation and Copy Right Board rulings, especially given the fact that webcasters have evolved into quite divergent forms with distinct business models, organizations and revenue/profit streams. Treating them the same would make little sense, and would open the door to fighting amongst themselves over a single rule that applies to them all as they have different interests. That is exactly what SoundExchange is hoping for.

I encourage you to ">read the whole article.

tricky lawyers and new media

Fred von Lohmann (on a mailing list, quoted with permission):

The history of the 20th century makes it clear, time and time again, that new media businesses are built by "tricky lawyers" helping their clients to plant a business in the lacunae and DMZs of copyright law. Broadcast radio, cable TV, jukeboxes, VCRs, MP3 players, are just some examples. In many of those cases, the legal rationales were far more outlandish than the DMCA rationales being invoked by Web 2.0 companies (in several cases, the lawyers lost the battle, but the businesses won the war).

Motion for stay pending appeal filed

DiMA and SaveNetRadio.com have filed a motion for a stay pending appeal. If granted this will push back the looming July 15th payment deadline.

PDF of Filing

emergency stay filed

WASHINGTON, May 30 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An emergency stay filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit could delay the looming D-Day for Internet radio. The motion, filed by the Digital Media Association in conjunction with National Public Radio, and the Small Commercial Webcasters, formally requests the court delay the implementation of a "radical and arbitrary" recording royalty rate increase imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board May 1. Legislation that would repeal the rate increase is pending in the Senate and the House, but may not be brought to a vote in either chamber before July 15th, the day the first payments for the newly increased rates for webcasters are due. "July 15th, D-day for Internet radio, is fast approaching," SaveNetRadio spokesperson, Jake Ward said, "and we are hopeful that today's motion for an emergency stay will afford the Internet radio industry crucial time to rehear this case. We have every confidence that Congress will continue to give the Internet Radio Equality Act the attention it deserves with the urgency it requires, as evidenced by the over 100 cosponsors who have signed on H.R. 2060 since its April 26th introduction. SaveNetRadio and the millions of webcasters, artists and listeners we represent urge the Court to give this motion full consideration."

Gonzales proposes new crime: 'Attempted' copyright infringement

`` General Alberto R. Gonzales today highlighted the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts to protect intellectual property rights, and announced a comprehensive legislative proposal entitled the “Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007,” before members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy.``

The Intellectual Property Protection Act of 2007 would:

Increase the maximum penalty for counterfeiting offenses from 10 years to 20 years imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause serious bodily injury, and increase the maximum penalty to life imprisonment where the defendant knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause death;

• Provide stronger penalties for repeat-offenders of the copyright laws;
• Implement broad forfeiture reforms to ensure the ability to forfeit property derived from or used in the commission of criminal intellectual property offenses;
• Strengthen restitution provisions for certain intellectual property crimes (e.g., criminal copyright and DMCA offenses);
• Ensure that the exportation and transhipment of copyright-infringing goods is a crime, just as the exportation of counterfeit goods is now criminal.