The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has taken
action against several internet radio stations that allow listeners
to participate in the selection of music to be broadcast. The RIAA
fears that interactive radio services that give a limited degree of
choice to listeners will adversely affect music retail sales.
The recent legal action against such services, which include
those provided by MTV’s SonicNet, Launch, MusicMatch and Xact
Radio, has received less backing from the recording industry than
other cases such as Napster. This is partly because the radio
services have adopted strict rules for requesting songs in an
attempt to comply with the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1988
(DMCA). These measures include restricting the number of tracks
that can be played from any one album and playing no more than four
from any particular artist within a three hour period.
Since these services do not involve file-swapping and have a
limited interactive nature, they differ significantly from most
other internet music services. It remains unclear whether the
measures taken will be sufficient for a court to rule against the
RIAA’s argument that they breach the DMCA.
