HOUSE MEMBERS ASK COPYRIGHT OFFICE TO REJECT CARP FEE PROPOSAL
Bipartisan group of House lawmakers urged Copyright Office Mon. to reject proposed royalty fees for online radio sound recording performance and reproduction, saying they were contrary to intent of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and congressional policy not to stifle innovation on Internet. In their letter to Librarian of Congress James Billington, 13 Democrats and 7 Republicans said Webcasters were afraid copyright rates proposed by Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) would drive them out of business. Letter followed request by 6 Cal.-based Internet radio companies for support from Cal. delegation, companies said.
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When Congress amended DMCA to make statutory sound recording performance and reproduction licenses applicable to Internet, legislators said, it intended that: (1) Creators be fairly paid for use of their works. (2) Internet’s media promise be realized. (3) Statutory license process be fair and efficient so Webcasters would be free of legal uncertainty so their businesses could grow quickly and pay creators more money as time went on. However, they said, CARP’s proposed rates for sound recording copyright owners were “high in comparison to historical royalty rates” such as those paid by terrestrial broadcasters to songwriters. Moreover, lawmakers said, absence of traditional percentage- of-revenue royalty “seems to undermine entirely the ability of small webcasters to survive.” If royalty rates “stifle an inchoate industry” and drive hundreds of webcasters out of business, they said, “Congress’s goals would not have been met.”
Congress intentionally has backed off from regulating Internet in order to allow marketplace to choose successful business models, legislators said: “We encourage you to carefully consider this when making a final determination on these royalty rates.” Letter-writers included Reps. Inslee (D-Wash.), Boucher (D-Va.), Cannon (R-Utah), Flake (R-Ariz.), Dunn (R-Wash.), Lofgren (D-Cal.), Nethercutt (R-Wash.), Honda (D-Cal.), Dicks (D-Wash.), Brown (D-Fla.), Crenshaw (R-Fla.), Johnson (R-Del.), Hastings (R-Wash.), Smith (D-Wash.), Larsen (D-Wash.), Baird (D-Wash.), Moran (D-Va.), Lantos (D-Cal.), Eshoo (D-Cal.), Evans (D-Del.).