o Copyright Office Sets Webcasting Royalty Rates; $0.07 Paid By All

Washington – The U.S. Copyright Office on Thursday made a final
determination of the official royalty rates that webcasters must pay
copyright holders to stream music on the Internet. The Librarian of
Congress, on the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, rejected a
proposal submitted by a Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) on May
20, and the Librarian issued final rates today. The most significant
difference between the CARP's determination and the Librarian's decision
is that the Librarian has abandoned the CARP's two-tiered rate structure
of $0.14 per performance for "Internet-only" transmissions and $0.07 for
each retransmission of a performance in an AM/FM radio broadcast, and has
decided that the rate of $0.07 will apply to both types of transmission.
Other changes include: some other rates for noncommercial broadcasters
decreased, and the fee webcasters and broadcasters must pay for the making
of ephemeral recordings has been reduced from 9 percent of the performance
fees to 8.8 percent. The Librarian of Congress' ruling goes into detail
explaining why it made changes to the CARP's recommendation, and exactly
what the changes are. The rates will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2002, but
webcasters will be compelled to pay royalty rates retroactively for all
music they have streamed since October 28, 1998. All retroactive royalties
must be paid by Oct. 20, 2002.
http://www.copyright.gov/carp/webcasting_rates_final.html