The Devil IS in the Details or the Saga of Internet Radio, RIAA, Congress AND The Library of Congress
[When last we picked up this story, I dropped the ball when I should have reported in more detail about the privately negotiated settlement between a group of webcasters called the Voices of Webcasters and the RIAA/Sound Exchange... We continue.]
It appears the LA Times has picked up the ball in covering the problems small webcasters are still facing over the royalty payments due the Library of Congress. In the article: Webcast Measure Divides Its Ranks, (reg required) writer Jon Healey tells the tail of a Detroit webcaster, Brian Hurley. Hurley is for all intent and purposes a "hobby webcaster," and complains loudly about the financial problems the hobbyist will face if he continues to webcast his music online. From where I sit, I wish Healey could have found a local LA webcaster who would talk on the record. But considering the major labels are here-- may be it was lucky Healey didn't.
Also it appears the original Sennenbrenner Bill is running into trouble. I am not surprised. The Bill was crafted under considerable pressure and negotiated at the last minute. In the end the Webcasters who profited from the Bill were the larger commercial webcasters and excluded the college and hobbiest webcasters. These are a large number of webcasters, and those without substantial bankrolls to buy favor in Congress.
Now it appears Sen. Jesse Helms (R-NC) is crafting and seeking support for of the record industry by encouraging them to "voluntarily" not collect fees while a new legislative solution is developed. Sources are telling us Helms is going to act in the best interest of those not represented by the first negotiation. Helm's plan is to seek legislative remedy (read a new law or laws,) for the "larger universe of webcasters," and "buy time" to pass a better solution during the "lame duck session" of Congress in November.We could only hope-- and hope they get it right this time.
And finally The LA Times has also done an article explaining just how much power MaryBeth Peters, Registrar of Copyrights for the Libary of Congress actually has when it comes to ownership and enforcement points on the DCMA. The article called, She Holds the Cards in Copyright Fight, explains the Solomon's job Ms. Peters has when it comes to dividing the digital pie of "fair-use" of ownership, sale and transfer of ownership and royalities of everything from books and CD's on the re-sale market, to conducting fact-finding roundtable meetings to get all the facts.
Whether we like the decisions Peters has made, it is a monumental job I highly doubt she bought into when she started her career at the LOC some 38 years ago.
Did you miss me the past couple days? Uh huh. I doubt you really missed my misprinted missives. Over the past couple days I have taken myself out of the Blog-loop. In between the projects that needed my attention, static server problems and a growing volcano of paperwork all over my desk, my attention needed to be elsewhere. I'm still not done, but at least things are at a bearable level. 'Sorry about that. Glad to see you survived. (Well may be everyone but Cliff's survived. He's moving.) I'm not sure I have. Yet.
Now that I've come back to Blogville, I see Doc, Eric and company have run off to the Geek Cruise. Jenny's Live-blogging at the Librarian Conference in Canada. Must be nice folks. I'll just sit here. Stuck in cloudy, foggy California, working away on those top secret files and guard the secret sauce while you go play. I'll watch the Angels and Giants go at it in the World Series and pray we don't revisit the California World Series/earthquake-zone again.
To those of you outside the State of Confusion known as California, I've heard the World Series isn't a big deal. Just be thankful you're not here. I live about 14 miles North of A's Stadium, AKA Edison International Field and trying to get a ticket-- ANY TICKET to the games is an exercise in excess, obscenity and obnoxious traffic jams. CNews reported, San Franciscans bartering big time for Series tickets; sperm donation offered. A women on Craigslist.org offered two prime seats for a sperm donation, promising the kid would be raised a Giants Fan. Jeeze lady! Give me a break! It's only a damn baseball game, not a Mensa test!
Halley's getting over a the cold she must have got when in NYC last week. Feel better Halley and don't OD on the Nyquil. Dr. Doug says it is not good to take too much alcohol, Nyquil's main ingredient-- and it's hard on the kidneys.
The funny thing about being offline for a few days-- is the phone started ringing. Cliff called in with the Moving Into the New House Report. Mike Lehman checked in to tell me he's looking for work and changing his email address. (If you need an Architect, Senior Developer or CTO Mike is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.) Mike Jeskin checked in to compare ball game comments and to add color commentary from covering another airplane crash up near Lancaster. Sarah checked in to tell me her new car got rear-ended with over $8K of damage with less than 60 miles on it! And finally Julie called to make a date for next weekend. We "need to" to check out a couple quilt stores and the rest of the weekly catch-up.
An un-named radio personality in LA called to tell me the LA County Sheriff's Office has finally put up a map-version of all the convicted sex offenders in LA County to inform the public of the known whereabouts offenders in regard to Megan's Law. If you live in Los Angeles County it is worth the look-up to see just how many convicted sex offenders live in your neighborhood.
The Devil IS in the Details
