Please scroll down this page for the lastest MeasureCast Top Ten ratings.

In response to RAIN's ongoing coverage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, New York based attorney Barry Skidelsky writes:

That the webcasting industry does not understand the DMCA is not surprising. It is part of a complex patchwork of law trying to play catch-up with emerging technologies and business models, an impossible task. Nonetheless, because compliance failures can be economically and otherwise devastating, the need for knowledgeable legal counsel has become more imperative than ever.

As you know, I am an attorney whose personal background includes both music and radio. Humbly, I suggest this helps provide me with an unique and holistic view of the law as it relates to old and new media businesses. With that in mind, I offer the following brief copyright law summary, which may prove helpful but which is not intended to be a substitute for competent counsel who can focus on a client's own particular situation. One size does not fit all; and, facts drive the law.

Copyright refers to a bundle of exclusive rights created by federal legislation, as interpreted by the courts. As regards music, such copyrights exist in both compositions and sound recordings. Chief among them is the right of public performance. For compositions, such rights are administered by organizations such as BMI, ASCAP and SESAC, who negotiate contracts for such rights in accordance with certain anti-trust consent decrees. (CONTINUED BELOW)

We'll send you a brief daily summary of each day's stories with a clickable link to the RAIN home page.
First name:	*
Last name:	*
Station & market (or company or school):
E-mail address:	*
Note: Fields marked by "*" are required.

(CONTINUED FROM ABOVE)
To digitally perform sound recordings, webcasters may avail themselves of statutory licenses, if they comply in advance with the terms and conditions of the DMCA. In part, this begins with sending an official notice to the US Copyright Office, which provides a measure of immunity regarding copyright liability, by essentially agreeing to pay the royalties and comply with the logging, reporting or other terms and conditions of this statutory license, as may be fixed by industry negotiation or arbitration.

The DMCA statutory license also covers so-called "ephemeral" recordings, e.g.: computer copies made to facilitate transmissions, again only under certain conditions not elaborated here. From here, it gets very complex.

Other factors to be considered include whether a service streams or downloads music, whether such service is "interactive" (e.g.: whether personalized programming is specifically designed for or requested by a user); and, whether such service is provided on a subscription basis.

Assuming one clears those hurdles, the DMCA's so-called "sound recording performance complement" (what some refer to as the no-repeats rules) basically state that over a three hour period a service should not program (i) more than three songs, or more than two in a row, from the same recording, or (ii) four songs, or more than three in a row, from the same recording artist or anthology.

Other DMCA restrictions require the following:

• Archived programs (those that, when accessed, always start in the same place and play in the same order) should be at least five hours long, and should not be available for more than two weeks at a time.
• Continuous "looped" programs (those that always perform in the same order, but are accessed in a continuous play stream) should be at least three hours long.
• Rebroadcasts of programs can be performed at scheduled times three times in a two week period (for programs of less than one hour) and four times (for programs of an hour or more).
• Do not publish advance program guides or use other means to pre-announce when particular sound recordings will be played. However, a webcaster may name one or two artists to illustrate the type of music on a particular channel; and, DJ "teaser" announcement using artists' names are permitted, but only those that do not specify the time a song will be played.
• Use only sound recordings that are authorized for performance in the United States (e.g.: do not play bootleg recordings).
• Provide some means for the end user to identify the song, artist and album title of the recording as it is being played. Relatedly, please note the music logging and reporting issue raised above.
• Lastly, the DMCA also requires that you accommodate technological copyright protection measures or pass through any identification, which may be included in the song recording itself, as long as it does not impose substantial costs or burdens on the webcaster. Also, do not deploy or support technological means to evade these requirements; and, do not explicitly encourage home taping.
  

In sum, the foregoing is only a brief outline of copyright legalities regarding webcasting. Much more is involved, warranting the assistance of legal counsel at the earliest possible moment (e.g.: in part to help structure the business model to comply with applicable safe harbors).

Barry Skidelsky is a New York based attorney and consultant, who provides a broad range of legal and business services to clients nationwide primarily involved with media (old and new), entertainment and technology. He is also an experienced bankruptcy trustee, legal auditor and arbitrator. A substantial portion of his current practice is devoted to helping broadcasters and other webcasters understand and comply with copyright law, including the DMCA. Barry can be reached by telephone at 212-832-4800.

Tomorrow in RAIN, attorney David Oxenford will explain why Friday's decision by the US Copyright Office to hold broadcasters who webcast their over-the-air signal liable for additional copyright fees will finally fully engage the broadcast community in this debate.

From the MeasureCast press release: "ABC Radio took the top two spots, and seven of the top ten positions in the second weekly MeasureCast Internet Radio Top10 ranking (for the week of Dec. 4th through 10th). MeasureCast, Inc. is the first company to provide streaming media customers with next-day audience size and demographic reports. The weekly ranking is based on Total Time Spent Listening (TTSL) - the total number of hours listeners access an on-line station's streamed content."

Rank	Station	Format	Network	Total TSL (in hrs.)	Cume Persons
1	WABC-AM (New York)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	80,466	18,096
2	KSFO-AM (San Francisco)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	46,736	9,875
3	The Beat LA (Los Angeles)	Urban R&B	RadioOne	46,169	4,768
4	WBAP-AM (Dallas / Ft. Worth)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	45,259	7,592
5	WLS-AM (Chicago)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	35,014	9,628
6	KABC-AM (Los Angeles)	Talk Radio	ABC Radio	32,052	7,517
7	Radio Margaritaville (Internet-only)	Classic Rock	Broadcast America	30,816	5,891
8	KGO-AM (San Francisco)	News/Talk	ABC Radio	29,560	6,802
9	3WK Original Underground (Internet-only)	Alternative Rock	3WK	26,837	7,694
10	WPLJ-FM (New York)	CHR/Top 40	ABC Radio	25,249	3,123

These are exactly the same top ten stations as last week, in only slightly different order. The number of streams rated was 886, down from last week's 944.

Last week's MeasureCast Top Ten is here. Read the MeasureCast press release here.

Have an opinion on this article? Share it! Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient "Submit" form.

Industry gatherings are always a showcase for companies to parade the new innovations they think will confirm their positions as true leaders and pioneers. This week's Streaming Media West conference in San Jose already has produced three very interesting stories. And with an expected announcement from Microsoft, there's certainly more to come...

RealNetwork's RealSystem iQ
RealNetworks has introduced the new RealSystem iQ technology, which the company promises will vastly increase the reliability and quality of delivery of streaming media, at up to twice the speed.

The system is said to avoid the problems of a congested Internet through a "honeycomb" arrangement of servers, all of which can broadcast into the network, receive signals from any other server, and deliver to the end-user. Satellite delivery distribution will also increase reliability, plus vastly increase the amount of content that can be delivered. RealNetworks says "near-100%" reliability is now possible.

Another feature of the new system is its integration of many different streaming technologies. In addition to the Real audio and video formats, RealSystem iQ will support more than 45 different media types, such as Apple's QuickTime, Flash 4, and streaming MP3. Eventually, it may even support WindowsMedia.

Read about the system on the RealNetworks site here.



Hiwire, iBEAM to exchange services
From the press release: "Hiwire Inc. today announced at Streaming Media West a non-exclusive agreement with iBEAM Broadcasting Corporation to utilize each other's products and services.

"IBEAM will offer Hiwire's live stream ad insertion as part of its On-Target Advertising platform and Hiwire will make iBEAM's streaming services available to its customers...

"Hiwire's system can also deliver and sell individually targeted ads, including local ads, and it works with all the major automation systems...iBEAM currently delivers over 60 million streams per month across its network of high-performance servers located in more than 160 networks around the world, connected by satellite, and augmented with fiber optic cable."



TuneTo.com's wireless Internet radio
From Silicon Valley News: "Up until now, connection speeds reminiscent of the earliest phone modems have prevented Internet radio from going portable. Cellular networks may be fine for transmitting short e-mail messages or displaying Web pages stripped of everything but text, but far from ideal when it comes to beaming music. That's about to change.

"One Redwood City company claims to have found a way to deliver continuous Internet music wirelessly to handhelds -- without long, 8-track-like pauses...

"TuneTo's chief executive, Tim Bratton, said its technology splits the stream into two parts. The big, bulky bits of information that would clog the wireless network get downloaded while the Palm is synchronized to the PC -- and stored there. A tiny ``streamlet'' of information is broadcast live, telling the device which music to play. The music titles aren't actually stored on the device, as you would entire MP3 digital music files. It's just file format information -- the sheet music, if you will, for the song, said Bratton. The tunes don't arrive until you request it over the Internet...

"'This enables a whole new type of radio. It's incredibly efficient. We can deliver millions of simultaneous streams this way,' said Bratton."

Read the story here.

Dec. 12-14, 2000	Streaming Media West 2000, San Jose, CA
February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001, Dallas, TX