House Passes Webcaster Settlement Bill

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:43:55 GMT

After last-minute negotiations on Saturday night, a bill introduced by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., that supporters say would allow months of royalty negotiations between music and Internet industries to continue, passed the House. The National Association of Broadcasters had concerns with the bill's 11th hour introduction and urged the chamber not to act. Bill backers interpreted the NAB's protest as a round-about way of harming Internet radio, which is giving AM/FM stations a run for their money in the digital age.

To accommodate NAB's stated concerns, the effective date in the legislation, which authorizes digital royalty collector SoundExchange -- on behalf of copyright owners and performers -- to negotiate an alternative royalty agreement with any Internet radio service, was changed from Dec. 15, 2008 to Feb. 15, 2009, an Inslee aide said. The rest of the bill remains intact. "After a long day of negotiations, calls and emails from concerned users of Internet radio, and lobbying efforts on both sides, H.R. 7084 is no longer opposed by the NAB," the aide said in an e-mail. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.

Read Tech Daily Dose's coverage of the issue as it developed here.

Tech Daily Dose: House Passes Webcaster Settlement Bill

House Passes Webcaster Settlement Bill