[Fmpro] Online Music Stores Protest Additional Download Royalties

[Dana from Serious Vanity Music]

>From digitalmusicnews.com:

Online Music Stores Protest Additional Download Royalties

As the paid download continues to grow, fresh battles are emerging over how 
royalties should be counted.  Just this week, a consortium of online music 
providers - including Yahoo, Apple, and AOL - pushed back against an effort 
to qualify paid downloads as a public performance.  The group, represented 
by the Digital Media Association, or DiMA, filed an amicus curiae (friend of 
the court) brief opposing a claim by ASCAP that digital music downloads 
should be counted as performances. This May, ASCAP will try to convince a 
federal court that the mere transfer of a digital file, even if that file is 
never opened, constitutes a performance and thus is subject to additional 
licensing fees and royalties.  DiMA calls that "double dipping," and alleges 
that fees are already being paid through traditional channels.  In the 
brief, DiMA lambasted the claim and called for the court to reject it. 
"ASCAP's assertion in federal court that digital distributions of music and 
video are also public
performances confounds legal, business and technological reality," said DiMA 
executive director Jonathan Potter.

Agreements related to physical media were (mostly) hashed out long ago, but 
the arrival of digital formats have sparked a continued and confusing land 
grab.  The current trial was initiated by ASCAP, pursuant to a US Government 
decree to set reasonable royalty rates between the association and several 
online vendors.  The DiMA brief follows opposing submissions by other 
organizations, including the RIAA and wireless group CTIA.  Additionally, 
several other organizations co-signed the DiMA filing, including the 
National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) and the Consumer 
Electronics Association (CEA).

Story by news analyst Richard Menta.

Permalink: http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/022807dima

Dana Detrick-Clark
Serious Vanity Music
http://www.seriousvanity.com