WASHINGTON, D.C.—Earlier this month, the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Copyright Royalty Board's music streaming rates for 2016-2020. The court rejected a series of complaints from SoundExchange in upholding CRB's established rates.
Womble Bond Dickinson telecom attorney John Garziglia wrote about the case at Radio Ink. The CRB hearing lasted six weeks and included 12,000+ pages of documents as well as testimony from 47 witnesses. At issue were CRB's webcasting rates for both ad-based commercial non-interactive webcaster services (starting at $0.0017 per song performance) and subscription-based commercial non-interactive webcaster services (starting at $0.0022 per song performance). These initial rates are to be adjusted for inflation in subsequent years.
Garziglia writes, "The U.S. Court of Appeals decision upheld every aspect of the CRB's rate determinations. Thus, absent a further appeal or rehearing which is highly unlikely, radio broadcasters who engage in non-interactive streaming now have a certainty of what the SoundExchange rate for streaming will be through 2020."
Click here to read "What Tuesday's CRB Ruling Means to You" by John Garziglia at Radio Ink.
John Garziglia represents radio and television broadcasters, offering personalized assistance in all areas of communications and telecommunications law including transactional and contract negotiations for broadcast station mergers and acquisitions, the securing of financing, governmental auctions of new frequencies, license renewals, new stations applications, facility changes, facility upgrades, licensing, and compliance with FCC rules, regulations and policies.
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