I got icecast up and running over the weekend. Now i have a couple of questions: 1. What can I do so that the record companies do not come after me ? IS it ok to stream mp3 music ? 2. I did some test. Some of my friends players would only play a few seconds and they had to select play to get more data. They were on a slow link. 3. Any other advice you may have. The play is to stream some music of some friends of mind who are musicians. Randy
Randolph Davis Hill wrote:> 1. What can I do so that the record companies do not come after me ? > IS it ok to stream mp3 music ?The record companies don't care what format the material is in, they care what the actual content is and whether or not you have permission to stream it. I'm not very clued up on the particulars. Only Thompson will care if you stream in MP3.> 2. I did some test. Some of my friends players would only play a few > seconds and they had to select play to get more data. They were on a > slow link.The slower the link, the lower the bitrate of the stream that they'll be able to listen to. You may have to do some tests to figure out what they can manage. Typically, people using 56k modems will have trouble with much over 40kbps, 33.6k modem users will have trouble with much over 24kbps. Geoff.
On Apr 3, 2005, at 8:43 PM, Randolph Davis Hill wrote:> I got icecast up and running over the weekend. Now i have a couple of > questions: > > 1. What can I do so that the record companies do not come after me ? > IS it ok to stream mp3 music ?Generally not, if you don't have explicit rights to do so. If you don't know if you have explicit rights, then you probably don't.
On Apr 4, 2005 4:43 AM, Randolph Davis Hill <jakarhill@yahoo.com> wrote:> I got icecast up and running over the weekend. Now i have a couple of > questions: > > 1. What can I do so that the record companies do not come after me ? > IS it ok to stream mp3 music ? > > The play is to stream some music of some friends of mind who are > musicians.It's OK to stream your friends' music (assuming they don't mind!) - BUT avoid cover versions and sample-based music, because then the rights of the original artists also need to be considered. Dan -- http://www.flatfourradio.co.uk
Randolph Davis Hill wrote:> I got icecast up and running over the weekend. Now i have a couple of > questions: > > 1. What can I do so that the record companies do not come after me ? > IS it ok to stream mp3 music ?First off, I have no legal training; this is not legal advice it is only my opinion. Any commercial music you buy on a CD (or from the Internet that is from a CD) will be covered by copyright. To use the music you need to get the right to use it, usually by paying. You need permission from the Songwriter, the Performer and the company that owns the recording of the performance. The Santiago Agreement was supposed to mean the music industry provides a single licence to cover all three, but I don't know anyone that's managed to get one so you will likely need a licence from each body. (this is different from country to country) As for mp3 streaming, if you have a turnover of under $100,000 US dollars you can stream in mp3 without charge, however you will still need to pay for an encoder licence. Just because you can download LAME for free and compile it doesn't make it legal. I would recommend using ogg vorbis for streaming instead, there are, and never will be, any charges and it's better quality.> 2. I did some test. Some of my friends players would only play a few > seconds and they had to select play to get more data. They were on a > slow link.Try lowering the stream bitrate. If your stream is 128kbps and they are on a modem (50-40kbps) it's not going to work...> 3. Any other advice you may have. > > The play is to stream some music of some friends of mind who are > musicians.As long as the work of the musicians isn't a cover of someone else's song, or contains samples from another copyrighted work then you should have no problem. Stephen LiveIce Project http://liveice.sf.net/
Though I'm not a legal advisor either, there have been some major changes with these types of laws, exclusively in Canada *hinthint* If your a Canadian citizen or have your information stored on Canadian soil (including if a Canadian has legal rights to the server you're hosting from), this data is considered intellectual property of Canada. The reason why it's so funky, is because the supreme court of Canada has ruled that (basicly) if it is on the internet, it is freely available to those that are able to find it. The rationality for this ruling is closely related to radio waves, satellite and tv signals. If it can not be restricted by physical means, there is no point trying to enforce it's capital loss. The closest the RIAA, for example, has come to busting canadian file sharers, netRadio djs and the like, is by going through the canuck version of the FCC. But since our version of the FCC is candian and not american, they have an immense task of getting anything into court. hernt. Nutty hey?