From Salon's Machinist blog: "Late last week SoundExchange... agreed to limit one key part of the new fees that threatened to shut down a great many webcasters. But now it seems that SoundExchange's benevolence came at a price: in exchange for reducing fees, the recording industry wants webcasters to prevent listeners from copying the music they get through Internet radio -- despite the fact that such copying may be perfectly legal.

"SoundExchange had previously asked radio stations for $500 for each channel of music that they send out to listeners, a fee that would have added up to more than a billion dollars for the industry. On Friday, the royalty group agreed to cap the amount at $50,000 per webcaster...

"As Ars Technica points out [here], though, SoundExchange says in a press release [.pdf, here] that it will only extend the deal to webcasters who 'work to stop users from engaging in "stream ripping" — turning Internet radio performances into a digital music library.'

"Stream ripping refers to the practice of recording songs from an Internet feed... Once you record a song from an Internet radio channel, you can play it like any other MP3, in any order you choose, without logging back in to the webcaster's stream... Some industry observers have speculated that people who were scared off by file sharing may be moving to stream ripping as an alternative source of free music online.

"But there isn't much firm data about the practice... Recording a Web radio stream, like recording a show on TiVo, occurs off the network, in the privacy of your own computer. And even if stream ripping is widespread, it's not clear what radio stations can do to stop it. Stream rippers work by capturing the music going straight to your PC's speakers, in much the same way that your TiVo or your VCR copies video as it flies between your cable box and your TV. Copy-protection programs simply can't stop this sort of copying.

"And though legal opinion is unsettled on the question, many copyright experts argue that stream ripping, like recording TV shows on your VCR, is legal. All you're doing is 'time shifting'...

"You have to wonder if the recording the industry — now that it's got webcasters locked in negotiations for their future — will have any trouble imposing such reduced-quality streams."

Read this entire blog post from Salon's Machinist here.

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... Interestingly, the "meta data" that's included with song files webcasters stream (which usually includes the artist and song title) is what enables stream-ripping programs to identify (and catalog) the individual songs that comprise the recorded programming. Webcasters include this information so that "Now Playing" song information appears in the player window — a requirement of the DMCA's sound performance complement, apparently to appease the record industry (in the interest of encouraging sales). Webcasters like SomaFM founder Rusty Hodge suggest simply staggering the intervals at which "Now Playing" meta data is served to "confuse" the stream-ripping programs. The issue of its legality aside, the question remains: are significant numbers of Internet radio listeners doing this? A music listener with half the tech-savvy required to install and use a stream-ripper can simply go to one of the numerous P2P services and download the songs they want, without having to wait for a webcaster to play them. If it turns out that stream-ripping isn't easy or efficient enough to be considered a realistic music piracy danger, why is SoundExchange hanging on this point? -- PM ...

From a MCPS-PRS Newsletter: "The UK Copyright Tribunal has returned its decision in relation to the rate paid to songwriters and composers when their music is used in online music services.

"The Tribunal has endorsed a settlement agreement negotiated in September 2006 between the MCPS-PRS Alliance and the majority of the online music industry. The Tribunal concluded that this agreement,.. should be the basis for the template for online licensing in the future.

"The Tribunal decision confirms that songwriters, composers and their publishers should receive 8% of gross revenues from online music service providers for on-demand services including downloads and subscription streaming services, 6.5% of revenues for interactive webcasting services and 5.75% for non-interactive webcasting...

"Steve Porter, Chief Executive of the Music Alliance said: '...The uncertainty has finally been removed and we have a template for the future that recognises and affirms the value of the creative process to the online music business.’"

Read the entire newsletter here.

"There's a lot of talk about internet radio, but I wonder how that's actually translating into consumer sales? My guess is that the technology isn't high street-friendly enough as yet, but that could change  with devices like the Freecom MusicPal.

"As you would expect, it plays Net radio via your home network (from a choice of around 5,000 stations) or streams MP3 files from a networked PC. Other features of note include... MP3 and WAV support, alarm clock, live RSS feeds / blog feeds in display and of course, a built-in speaker.

"It will be available in August, priced at 129 Euros ($177)."

Read the entire artice at TechDigest.

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