Copyright Royalty Board

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The Copyright Royalty Board is a system of three Copyright Royalty Judges who determine rates and terms for copyright statutory licenses and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

1 March 2007 royalty increase
2 The threat to Internet radio
3 See also
4 References

[edit] March 2007 royalty increase

On March 6th 2007 after 48 days of testimony leading to 13,288 pages of written testimony, the Copyright Royalty Board set new rates for webcasting for the License Period 2006-2010. These rates are higher than the existing royalties paid for non-interactive webcasting. One component of this is to impose a per stream minimum fee of $500.

[edit] The threat to Internet radio

Some online activists have asserted that the increased rates will potentially increase royalty fees for 'many broadcasters' ten fold. Some online broadcasters (e.g. Radio Paradise) have claimed that this increase threatens the lives of their stations. The new rates were the result of an intensive and open regulatory process in which advocates from all sides of the debate were represented.

The rates were required by law to be based on the price which would be set by a marketplace of willing sellers and willing buyers. Much of the discussion centered around deciding issues like who would be the willing sellers (it was decided that an individual record company was the basic unit of a 'willing seller'), and who would be the willing buyers.

One issue which was raised was the desire of smaller webcasters to be assured that their fees would not exceed their revenue. The Board was forced to reject this reasoning in their final decision because the ability of smaller stations to generate revenue from their operations has little or no bearing on the market value of the rights held by the copyright holders.

As of January 9, 2006, the board consists of: