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College Radio - History On The Internet?
For additional information, contact: Joel Willer - (318) 342-1426 - willer@spock.ulm.edu Sandra Wasson - (510) 642-1111 - swass@media.berkeley.edu Will Robedee - (713) 348-2935 - willr@ktru.org College Broadcasters File Comments in Response to Copyright Office Proposed Internet Rules April 10, 2002 Internet users will face the probable loss of an important source of diverse audio programming, depending on how the U.S. Copyright Office implements a landmark federal law. Radio broadcasts transmitted over the Internet by student-operated college and university radio stations provide listeners with unique musical choices, informative public discourse, and other creative services--all without commercial advertisements. The voices of these nonprofit college broadcasters are likely to be silenced due to excessive royalty fees and oppressive administrative requirements proposed by the Copyright Office in response to requirements under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA"), passed by Congress in 1998. The demise of college broadcasters on the Internet is something that does not have to happen. If this downfall does come to pass, the student broadcasters will lose an important educational tool and the public will be deprived of the programming offered by these students. An ad-hoc group of college radio stations (listed below) has organized an effort to inform the Copyright Office of the serious threat proposed regulations will have on the Internet services of their stations, and on the Internet presence of all noncommercial college broadcasters nationwide. The group of college broadcasters has most recently taken their case to the Copyright Office and to federal legislators in the form of comments filed in response to recordkeeping rules currently under consideration in Washington, DC. If adopted, the rules would require the college broadcasters to collect literally millions of pieces of data annually for the music aired by their stations. "There will be a mass exodus from the Internet by college radio, because the proposed fees and reporting requirements are unattainable and unrealistic. Stations that are not informed on the issue will be liable for fees they didn't even know they owe," says Will Robedee, general manager of Rice University's KTRU and one of the effort's organizers. The Copyright Office is being asked by the college broadcasters to implement regulations that are appropriate to the special circumstances of these noncommercial educational radio stations. "College radio stations provide a broad range of programming that includes a wide variety of diverse music, interviews, public affairs programming, news, public service announcements and sports play-by-play," according to Sandra Wasson, general manager of KALX at the University of California, Berkeley. "College radio stations also serve as an educational outlet for not only the students involved, but as a service to the community at large." In previous copyright policy decisions, both Congress and the Copyright Office have recognized the distinctive characteristics of educational radio stations and have adopted fees and administrative requirements which allow for the fair distribution of royalties to copyright owners. The college broadcasters hope for the same results now. Due to the ad-hoc nature of the programming of most college radio stations, the proposed regulations would overwhelm student and community volunteers at those stations and would heavily tax the stations' restricted budgets. "As noncommercial stations, we are limited by our federal licenses in our ability to raise new money," says Joel Willer, general manager of the University of Louisiana at Monroe's KXUL. "The proposed recordkeeping regulations are targeted at large commercial Web services, and are not appropriate for small nonprofit volunteer operations like college radio stations." On February 20, 2002, the Copyright Office announced proposed royalty fees that the college broadcasters also fear could lead to the end of their Internet broadcasts. Because of the way Congress established the fee arbitration process, the college broadcasters and the general public now have no input into the ultimate decision about these fees, which must be finalized by the Librarian of Congress by the end of May. When determined, the college radio stations and other webcasters will have to pay royalty fees retroactively to 1998. The complete text of the comments the college broadcasters filed with the Copyright Office is available at http://www.ulm.edu/~willer/copyright. The radio stations and institutions that participated in the joint comments to the U.S. Copyright Office are KALX , University of California, Berkeley; KDVS, University of California, Davis; KUCI, University of California, Irvine; KUCR, University of California, Riverside; KCSB, University of California, Santa Barbara; KZSC, University of California, Santa Cruz; KSPC, Pomona College, Claremont, California; KFJC, Foothill College, Los Altos, California; KZSU, Stanford University, Stanford, California; KXUL, University of Louisiana at Monroe; WFNP AM and FM, State University of New York, New Paltz; WSBF, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina; and KTRU, Rice University, Houston, Texas. Additional information about the DMCA and webcasters' efforts to save Internet broadcasts is available at: http://www.rice.edu/cb/sos http://www.saveinternetradio.org http://www.kurthanson.com http://www.musicianslobby.com/webcasting.htm http://www.save-the-music.org http://www.beethoven.com/copyright.htm http://www.live365.com/features/carp http://www.radioparadise.com/?content=web_radio
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