Rep. Inslee To Introduce Webcaster Bill
Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., will reintroduce a bill Tuesday that will allow many months of royalty negotiations between the music and Internet industries continue while delaying full implementation of a controversial rate-setting for webcasters imposed by the Copyright Royalty Board. The legislation, which will be cosponsored by Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Energy and Commerce Communications Subcommittee Chairman Rick Boucher, D-Va., and California Democrats Zoe Lofgren and Anna Eshoo, is simple but effective, sources said. It would replace a Feb. 15, 2009 deadline that was part of legislation that passed the 110th Congress, with a 30-day window from the date of enactment for a deal to be reached between digital royalty collector SoundExchange, which is negotiating on behalf of copyright owners and performers, and Internet radio services represented by the Digital Media Association and others.
The bill is on a fast-track and is scheduled to be marked up by Conyers' committee the following day. Sen. Ron Wyden , D-Ore., sponsored a companion measure last session but it was unclear whether he planned to follow Inslee's lead. SoundExchange and the National Association of Broadcasters already reached agreement on Internet radio royalties earlier this year that provides discounts on previously set rates for 2009 and 2010 and establishes rates for 2011-2015. Under the arrangement, which involves AM and FM radio stations that simulcast programming over the Internet or that create new stand-alone Internet stations, simulcasts or Web channels operated by local stations are reduced for the first two years by about 16 percent then gradually increase through 2015 -- from $0.0015 per streamed sound recording in 2009 to $0.0025 per stream by 2015. Read more on the topic here.
Update: A spokeswoman for Wyden confirmed late Monday that her boss would be introducing the Senate version of the bill, potentially this week.
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