Music, Web Reps Reach Song Rights Deal
From Tuesday's CongressDaily PM Edition (subscription required).
After more than two years of private negotiations, music and Internet industry stakeholders have arrived at a formula for commercial webcasters to pay copyright owners and artists for their songs. The deal came a week after President Obama signed legislation sponsored by Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., that kept deliberations on track while delaying implementation of a controversial 2007 rate-setting by a federal panel that determines royalty fees for various distribution platforms.
Under the agreement announced today, "pureplay" services, whose main business is streaming music under a government license, would pay a percentage of their U.S. revenue up to 25 percent as well as a $25,000 per year minimum royalty as an alternative to the Copyright Royalty Board's calculation, which webcasters argued could put them out of business. Wyden said he was happy to help reach a deal and ensure that the "unjust decision of the CRB wasn't applied to this dynamic new medium." Inslee said webcasters and copyright holders "needed this freedom to negotiate and craft a royalty rate structure that's fair for all impacted parties."
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