Tuesday, October 28th, 2008
In a rare example of strange coincidence, some of my questions on Internet broadcasting and podcasting have been aswered.
Broadcaster magazine today released the story on the Copyright Board of Canada’s decision regarding internet broadcasting.
Terrestrial stations who already pay SOCAN fees will be able to extend their programming to the internet.
“For the users already paying royalties to SOCAN for their conventional activities, t[he] decision essentially extends the existing tariffs to their Internet activities”, said Claude Majeau, Secretary General of the Copyright Board.
As far as our podcasts go, we get a bit of a free ride.
In a majority decision, Mr. Justice William J. Vancise and Mr. Stephen J. Callary also decided not to impose a tariff on a number of disparate sites for which the main activity is not related to
music. These include, for instance, restaurants, hotels, bars and any other business websites that use music.It also includes amateur podcasts, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace and video sharing sites such as YouTube, as well as sites operated by individuals who use music.
Such a tariff, if certified, could potentially target hundreds of thousands of users who either make very limited use of music or attract little or no attention. SOCAN was unable to provide the Board with any reliable evidence on these users and, in these circumstances, “it would be highly disruptive and unfair to set a tariff for these users in the absence of any reliable benchmark”, said Claude Majeau.
This is definitely good news for us. Sometimes there is a real advantage to being small and sneaky! Be sure to listen to our Celt in a Twist and WorldbeatCanada Radio podcasts — still free for everyone!