This morning, the Web-based music service Pandora might receive uplifting news. Or it might see its hopes dashed in its effort to bring about a change to fees determined by the Copyright Royalty Board of the Library of Congress in 2007. All depends on the fate of a bill labeled H.R. 7084, or the “Webcaster Settlement Act.”
The bill is said to have been originally considered for deliberation yesterday, according to CNET’s Caroline McCarthy, who reverberated words delivered by Pandora founder Tim Westergren that the vote on the matter of raising the Internet royalty issue once more had been moved to Saturday morning. All seems to hinge on the National Association of Broadcasters’ ability to influence the denial of the passage of H.R. 7084. In the Westergren’s terms: “After a yearlong negotiation, Pandora, artists and record companies are finally optimistic about reaching an agreement on royalties that would save Pandora and Internet radio. But just as we’ve gotten close, large traditional broadcast radio companies have launched a covert lobbying campaign to sabotage our progress.”
The summary provided for H.R. 7084, introduced just two days ago by Representative Jay Inslee of Washington (D), and will need a two-thirds house majority vote to supplant the NAB’s offensive, is quite simple and straightforward:
H.R. 7084 contains technical amendments to the Small Webcasting Settlement Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-321) which will permit commercial and noncommercial webcasters to negotiate royalty rates and terms other than those determined by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in its May 2007 decision….
So here we are at another crucial point in Pandora’s attempt to evade a “pull-the-plug kind of decision,” a phrase Westergren used last month to describe the company’s current situation. If the CRB’s decision remains as it has for over a year now, Pandora would purportedly have to manage an existence in which nearly 70% of revenue would go to payments.
Pandora is of course not the only party that would suffer from such increases. But many traditional broadcasters don’t incur such costs, at least not for over-the-air transmissions, which they no doubt feel is threatened by the proliferation of independent streaming services. Pandora is relatively unique in that it is a solitary entity, while, say, Last.fm is owned by the Big Media giant CBS.
Thus for the last 12 hours or so Pandora has feverishly called for a grassroots push of the abovementioned bill through to House confirmation. It is only designed to reopen the royalty matter, which doesn’t promise a subsequent reversal or change. Still, it does give Pandora and other afflicted parties a chance to see the potential for an amendment.
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