Webcasting Victory for Student Stations!

Student stations achieved a victory in the webcasting arena!  The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) agreed to adopt a settlement between CBI and SoundExchange that does not raise the minimum fee which all most student stations’ pay and provides much needed relief from burdensome recordkeeping requirements.  See our press release on this topic. While these rates and terms have been available to student stations that opted into the agreement under the Webcasting Settlement Act of 2009, the adoption of the agreement sets an important precedent in future proceedings.

Prior to the adoption of the CBI-SX settlement, the CRB considered all non-commercial stations and webcasters to be equal, which is contrary to precedent under other copyright proceedings.  For the first time, student stations are being considered a distinct class of non-commercial entities.  While the rates for non-student stations (other than NPR or NFCB stations) are the same as for student stations, only student stations are eligible to for relief from the enormous recordkeeping and reporting reporting requirements.

Student stations with small web audiences may either pay a proxy fee or submit sample reports of use without providing audience data.  Stations with a bit larger audience may submit reports on a sample basis, but may not elect the proxy fee option, but are still exempt from highly detailed information concerning audience size.  The stations with the largest audiences must provide census, not sample data, but are still exempted from the detailed information concerning audiences under the CRB determination.

A copy of the CRB findings is available here.  This is a 137 page document.

Another organization tried to obtain lower minimum fees for student stations, but apparently failed to support its arguments.  Page 51- 64 are the most relevant.

Our Webcasting Guide has not been updated to reflect the CRB action, but at the moment, that does not appear to matter, as SX has not changed any of the forms.  If you have questions about copyrights, webcasting or other issues, please use our contact page and we will respond to your inquiry promptly.