UK SHOUTcasting - staying inside the law
by matt @ 6:57 pm. Blogged under Music, Web Technology
Running your own streaming radio station online or ‘SHOUTcasting’ sounds like fun, install SHOUTcast software on your server and away you go? Wrong… like anything popular music related you need a license to broadcast copyrighted materials publicly - or face a fine upwards of $10,000. Just installing SHOUTcast on a server can be tricky with increasing numbers of web hosting companies demanding to see license information before they authorise its use. However, there’s a bigger problem for UK residents and that is the absence of any current licensing agreement. UK residents can however broadcast legally TO the US if they’re willing to fork out the dollars for a license - how helpful!
SHOUTcast themselves offer no legal information about use of their software, instead pointing users to dig out all the information themselves. Thankfully SWCast Network provide some guidance about Personal Broadcast Services in the United States, including the provision of subscriber services which take care of all the licensing agreements for US webcasters. Their Joint Performance Licensing Program costs as little as $205 per year and saves on all the otherwise rigorous paperwork needed under the standard US licensing agreements - try their webcast cost calculator.
Their very helpful tutorial also details personal licensing and copyright law for the US, this includes information on the three US music societies dealing with standard compulsory licensing: ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC. Luckily for us all The Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002 (SWSA) agreed a more reasonable revenue based fee for small webcasters in the US. Since then royalties have been collected on behalf of the three main societies by ‘Sound Exchange‘ and passed on. SWCast work with Sound Exchange to meet all of their legal requirements in the US.
For the UK market, Sound Exchange has no royalty collection agreements. Instead SWCast are working with the Phonographic Performance Limited to ‘become the only firm in the world to legally provide blanket Internet radio licensing of sound-recordings to both the United Kingdom and to the United States’. This is detailed in a letter by their president. Until this agreement comes about it seems unclear if there is a legal way of SHOUTcasting publicly and legally in the UK, that is, unless you’re a major radio station with the support to pay royalties in the usual way. This leaves smaller webcasters in a bit of a legal predicament. Play only your own produced music or you’ll be in trouble.
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August 28th, 2006 at 7:29 pm
Interesting read. However it should be noted that the PPL now insists it\’s the location of the listener and not the location of the broadcaster that determines who needs a PPL license (although they still expect a dubbing fee from what I can gather). This is straight from the horses mouth. Just ask them.
With that being said, does a UK webcaster really need a PPL license if they use a service like Live365? What specific PPL rules or UK law says this can\’t be done? The interaction is between Live365 and the listener, not between the listener and broadcaster.
The PPL can\’t have it both ways.
August 28th, 2006 at 7:53 pm
Hi Brice, yes it’s the location of the listener not the broadcaster that affects licensing, apologies if that wasn’t clear from the above. However, to me this suggests that we could broadcast from the UK to a US audience (with a relevant license or via a broadcaster) but not from the UK to the UK. Services like SWCast and Live365 exist to fill the void for the US but don’t currently for the UK listener (in theory). I don’t know if this is actually being enforced, nobody’s being sued that I’m aware of but should I start something successful over here I’m sure they’d get interested very quickly.
I saw the following items in the terms and conditions on Live365
http://www.live365.com/info/user.html
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‘You should only include in your Internet Radio Programs sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States.’
… with respect to each sound recording uploaded by you to Live365, either:
You own or control all rights in any such sound recording including all rights in the underlying musical composition; or
[A] all writers of the songs embodied in the sound recording are affiliated with BMI, ASCAP or SESAC; and [B] the sound recording is subject to a compulsory license under the DMCA, 17 U.S.C. ? 114 (requires Adobe Acrobat plug-in).
———
So even they seem to be suggesting that they won’t permit broadcasting to a UK audience because the PPL have yet to agree a license with anybody. The only people I could find moving in that direction were SWCast?
September 2nd, 2006 at 12:26 am
Historically, public performance licenses have always been issued based upon the locations to which the performances take place (in this case, reception of a digital audio transmission of sound recordings via the Internet). Similar rules apply to cable and satellite where broadcasts may cross into other jurisdictions.
Both SoundExchange and PPL agree on this point. Likewise, you should be aware that an ASCAP license and BMI license incorporate a similar limitation — the digital audio transmission of musical works via the Internet is restricted to the territory of the United States and its possessions. If you are a U.S. Webcaster, you do not have any right to stream music into the United Kingdom with only an ASCAP and BMI license.
(The information provided within this section is not to be construed as legal advice or consultation.)