Small Webcasters get fee reprieve

NEWS

Small Webcasters won't immediately have to pay new, potentially steep royalty fees due next week, the group responsible for collecting payments said Friday. The new rules for Webcasters, under which Internet radio stations will be required to pay about a 14th of a cent for each song they stream to each listener, are scheduled to go into effect on Sunday. Small companies, which had complained the fees would put them out of business, were close to winning separate rules in a compromise bill in the US Congress. The measure was blocked before the Senate adjourned Thursday night. However, the record industry-backed SoundExchange -- the group tasked with overseeing and distributing the new song royalty fees to labels and artists -- said late Friday it would not collect the full fees from small companies as long as Congress is still considering the legislation. "Given the unfortunate fact that a lone Senator apparently held up the small Webcasters' bill, we felt it appropriate to offer this proposal," John Simson, SoundExchange's executive director, said in a statement. "We hope that this unexpected development will be soon resolved by the Senate." Under the SoundExchange proposal, any Webcaster that would have qualified for help under the pending bill will only have to pay the $500 (£320) minimum annual fee contained in the measure. The fee would still be retroactive to 1998 for as many years as the Net radio service had been in operation, up to a total of $2,500. The pending bill would see small businesses pay between 8 percent and 12 percent of their revenue as royalties, instead of a flat per-song fee. Under the SoundExchange offer, that revenue percentage would not be due until after the bill is taken up in Congress. Large companies, such as America Online or Microsoft, will still have to pay the per-song fees and retroactive payments due on 20 October, as laid out by the Copyright Office and the Librarian of Congress. The small Webcasting bill, drawn up in a compromise between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and a group of small Internet radio stations earlier this month, had passed the House without significant opposition. Shepherded in large part by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, the bill was expected to pass without serious problem in the Senate on Thursday. However, a single legislator put an anonymous hold on the bill at the last minute, preventing a vote before the Senate's adjournment. Sources close to the issue say the hold was placed by Senator Jesse Helms, a North Carolina Republican, responding in part to traditional broadcasters' and radio stations' concerns about the bill. The Senate can vote on the bill after reconvening on 12 November.

E-commerce is transforming business around the globe. Get the latest headlines at ZDNet UK's E-commerce News Section. Have your say instantly, and see what others have said. Go to the ZDNet news forum. Let the editors know what you think in the Mailroom.

Post your comment

In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in.

You can also log in with Facebook. Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below

By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Community FAQ

ZDNet UK Live

I agree with the previous commenter wholeheartedly. I couldn't say it better myself. This is very 'Big Brother'. And while I agree with protecting...

1 hour ago by UnderINK on European e-identity plan to be unveiled this month

Nice to see that Turing's idea of a general purpose computer doing once-hardware-powered tasks in software is now universal ;-) Mary

6 hours ago by Simon Bisson and Mary Branscombe on Software with everything

seriously now. I've only bothered to read a small bit of the comments. do me and the rest of the world a favour. stop saying it does not work or...

10 hours ago by Jason Burchell via Facebook on Music industry negotiating over 24-bit downloads

Read about it and weep, John Donahoe ... In addition to Visa’s V.me, there is now MasterCard’s PayPass digital wallet soon to arrive; another...

14 hours ago by Philip Charles Cohen via Facebook on PayPal takes phone-based payments to the high street

Leslie Satenstein : Where have you ever seen Mozilla even mention this? Firefox is the most popular browser in the GNU/Linux OS, so I don't see...

15 hours ago by apexwm on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

SHleG: Do you remember building a clockwork scorpion kit (I'm pretty sure I have a photo of it somewhere) — I think it was called something like...

17 hours ago by songmaster on Software with everything

Good I love Yahoo! Their search engine is getting better than Google as of late. I find more of what I want on the first page, and usually within...

17 hours ago by Chris Wortman via Facebook on Linux Mint 13 ramps up for KDE release

openhgs has made the point for Windows 8 multiple monitors without realising it! With Windows 7 you have to switch the mouse and so your focus...

19 hours ago by PatrickG on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

Mozilla has threatened to stop supporting Linux. I guess that UBUNTU is going with another browser. I indicated that if Mozilla stops supporting...

21 hours ago by Leslie Satenstein via Facebook on Firefox rapid release improves Fedora Linux

Much as I abhor Microsoft's licensing practices, this is almost certainly down to purchasing IT equipment via 3rd party consultants - you get the...

21 hours ago by Andy Bolstridge via Facebook on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

@openhgs Windows users have had multiple desktops since Linus started writing Linux. They just haven't shipped as standard because not enough...

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on Windows 8 could speed multi-monitor uptake

@Phil at Cloud4 What, Microsoft gets £1,200 per PC and £1,622 per server? Gosh, I'm amazed....

2 days ago by Jack Schofield on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

You guys have no idea what is going on at Autonomy. Autonomy could have been a much more profitable organization. The sales operations at Autonomy...

2 days ago by craigsc on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves

How does this impact on dual or multi booting? Seems to me to more or less prohibit this, from Windows 8 anyway. Will Grub 2 recognise Windows 8,...

2 days ago by Moley on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

I don't understand why there cannot be a slight pause during the boot process so the user can press a key. Many operating systems do this, even if...

2 days ago by apexwm on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

You can now buy the Xi3 modular computer in the UK at http://www.ocdistribution.com . This can be bought with the Tand3m software, pricing and...

2 days ago by Gavin Goodman on CES 2012: Xi3 microSERV3R

I agree: Mike Lynch can clearly build a business and manage strategy. I suspect the exit of Mike is more likely the end of a planned handover...

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on HP cuts 27,000 staff as Autonomy chief Lynch leaves

This is unbeleivable government wastage with only one winner... Microsoft 1 - Tax payer Nil!

2 days ago by Phil at Cloud4 on 6 million wasted licences and £1,200 PCs: welcome to government IT

So what do you do when you can't boot into windows? Why can't I just hold Shift while I power up instead of having to boot into windows and click a...

2 days ago by Mispam on Windows 8 start-up speed forces USB boot workaround

I've also seen that Mac OS X for Intel machines is supposed to run in VirtualBox, which would also be a nice solution. I've never tried it though.

2 days ago by apexwm on xTreme Triple Booting: Linux, Mac & Windows

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Small Webcasters get fee reprieve

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Small Webcasters put faith in latest bill

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Post your comment

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Citrix to deliver Windows desktops from the cloud

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Senior Business Analyst

Technical Project Manager

Software Support Engineer

Inside ZDNet UK

Indoor navigation coming to a mobile near you soon

Software with everything

Asus Transformer Pad TF300T

How IT is ganging up on organised cybercrime

HTC One V: First take

SharePoint deployment: The final chapter

Ten IT jobs to save up for those rare lulls

News & Analysis

Reviews

Blogs

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features

ZDNet UK / News and Analysis / Business of IT / IT Strategy

Small Webcasters get fee reprieve

Daily Newsletters

Topics

Related stories

Post your comment

Get ZDNet UK's daily newsletter

Enter your email address to sign up

ZDNet UK Live

Latest in IT Strategy

Featured white papers

Latest jobs

Inside ZDNet UK

Resources

About Us

Member Services

Special Features

Advertising Features