A group of radio stations has asked a US appeals court to review
a decision which obliges them to pay royalties to recording
companies and artists for playing their music on the internet. The
radio stations claim that the federal court, which issued the
ruling, and the US Copyright Office, had misinterpreted the
law.
Last June, the US Copyright Office established that webcasting
should be subject to a royalty of 0.07 cents per listener per song.
Radio stations and webcasters objected strongly to the decision,
which meant that the would have to pay 70 cents for each song
played to an audience of 1,000 listeners.
Under US law, radio stations have historically had to pay
royalties only to songwriters and not to artists and other owners
of the sound-recording copyright. Legislative reforms in 1995 and
1998 gave sound-recording owners the right to be paid for internet
transmission of music.
In their appeal, the broadcasters claim that the law was
intended to apply only to services that allow the downloading of
songs, and not to on-line radio broadcasts.
