Webcasting and Copyrights for Radio Stations – Performance Rights Act

On December 18, 2007, Howard Berman (D-CA) introduced into the House the Performance Rights Act (H.R.4789), which seeks to extend the sound recording royalty to all terrestrial broadcasters. For terrestrial noncommercial stations the bill would create an annual flat radio sound recording performance license fee of $1,000.  This royalty payment would be in addition to any money due for webcasting.  The bill was passed in the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property and forwarded to the full Committee on the Judiciary on June 26, 2008. A companion bill (S.2500) was introduced into the Senate by Patrick Leahy.  One key difference in these bills is that the Senate version does not extend the sound recording performance complement or the need to display text information about the songs to terrestrial radio.  Further the prohibition on pre-announcements would not be extended to terrestrial radio.  HOWEVER, the recordkeeping requirements and reports of use requirements would apply to terrestrial stations.

The group MusicFirst has, as one of its founding members, SoundExchange and is the primary group lobbying for the passage of this bill.   Along with the National Association of Broadcasters, Free Radio Alliance and others, including CBI are working to prevent passage of this bill.  CBI and some of its member stations are members of Free Radio.  NAB and Free Radio often refer to the attempts to require broadcast stations to pay the copyright owners of sound recordings as a “performance tax”.  If your station opposes this new fee, it should consider joining the Free Radio Alliance.