video games, music, internet pop culture
CNET reports that the Webcaster Settlement Act has passed the House of Representatives unanimously. Only the Senate now stands in the way of internet radio broadcasters and business viability.
According to the article:
Webcasters are fighting for the right to negotiate with the music industry to reduce the royalty rates they must pay to stream music over [...]
The Copyright Royalty Board just finalized the new royalty rates that satellite radio providers will pay for the next 5 years.
Under the terms of the CRB Satellite Radio Services, XM will pay a performance license rate of 6.0% of those gross revenues subject to the fees for 2007 and 2008, 6.5% for 2009, 7.0% for [...]
Bloomberg recently reported that AOL, Yahoo!, and Pandora are considering shutting down their internet radio operations due to the continued refusal of SoundExchange (the arm of the RIAA that collects royalty fees) to lower their preposterous royalty rate increases for song plays.
Siding with the music companies, the board in March ordered that royalties [...]