Hi All, Some time ago I emailed this list and mentioned (as well as a couple of techinical queries) that I was trying to contact the PRS for information on the copyright licencing requirements of a non-profit on-line radio station, a few people expressed interest in this and asked I keep them updated. Well I just sent my third email (transcript below) informing them that I will assume a further lack of response as permission from them to play whatever. Reassuringly I found this on their website under the heading of "What happens if I do not take out a licence?" If a person is using copyright music and does not apply for a the relevant MCPS or PRS licence, the Society in most cases will take all reasonable steps to ensure that the user is fully aware of their legal obligations and allow them time to obtain a licence before considering legal action, but this will depend on the circumstances. If, however, that person still refuses to comply, the Societies will apply for an injunction to prevent them from using any copyright Alliance repertoire until they take out a licence. So basically that reads, to me, that if you don't have a licence and they find out, they'll merely ask you to get one! Anyway, keep up all the great work, Cheers, Mike Hobbs (Biz) transcript follows: Hi there, I am currently in the development stage of setting up an Internet radio station. I expect it to be ready this month, assuming everything goes to plan. Presumably I will need one of your licences to be sure this is legal - but I will not be hosting adverts on either the radio station or website as this is a strictly non-profit venture. As I understand, you generate your revenue based on a percentage of the licensee's revenue,of which there will be none, where does this leave me in terms of getting a licence? I quote from your website "The MCPS-PRS Alliance Joint Online Licence (JOL) was launched in 2002 and since then over 100 music service providers have signed up to its terms. Licensees are able to operate a number of business models under the one licence at a rate of 8% of revenues (discounted from 12% to help the growth of the legal online music market)" On another note, most of the records played will not be from major record labels (i.e. Virgin, EMI) rather small labels such as low-life. I am happy to support them, how can I be sure my licence fee is actually going to these labels, or do you only cover a limited number of record labels? As this is the third time I am emailing you and I have still not recieved any reply I will interpret a further lack of response as permission from the MCPS-PRS to play music freely from my on-line radio station. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/icecast/attachments/20051018/2df232b5/attachment.htm
On Tue, Oct 18, 2005 at 02:08:16PM +0100, Michael Hobbs wrote:> Presumably I will need one of your licences to be sure this is legal - > but I will not be hosting adverts on either the radio station or > website as this is a strictly non-profit venture. As I understand, you > generate your revenue based on a percentage of the licensee's > revenue,of which there will be none, where does this leave me in terms > of getting a licence?I doubt you'll get a "free" licence. Even non-profit restricted service licence (RSL) stations have to get PRS licences, and very expensive they are too. An RSL is a short term radio licence issued by OfCOM (was Radio Authority) in the UK. They usually get frequencies of 87.7MHz or 107.9MHz, and are limited to 10W radiated power from a vertically polarized omnidirectional aerial. The licence usually lasts a maximum of 28 days. -- Paul Martin <pm@zetnet.net> (work) <pm@nowster.zetnet.co.uk> (home)
hi Michael Hobbs wrote:> Hi All, > > Some time ago I emailed this list and mentioned (as well as a couple of > techinical queries) that I was trying to contact the PRS for information > on the copyright licencing requirements of a non-profit on-line radio > station, a few people expressed interest in this and asked I keep them > updated. Well I just sent my third email (transcript below) informing them > that I will assume a further lack of response as permission from them to > play whatever.don't forget PPL - there's more on this here: http://www.mediauk.com/article/1 you could always contact the Community Media Association who run a free streaming service for members and who are in some sort of dialogue with the MCPS-PRS: http://www.commedia.org.uk/ but at the end of the day if the MCPS-PRS are too overwhelmed to be able to respond to your emails and letters then it sounds like they hardly have the resources and will power to enforce the licencing requirements that are in place. cheers chip
Of course we all know these groups would certainly not appreciate the audible distrobution of their bread and butter. However, I assume your scope is only within the U.S. , whereas personaly in Canada. Our laws governed a right to freedom of information in regards to online content. More or less, if you find it online it must be public content (unless that's been changed by now, I haven't heard anything). Does anyone know if running adds in your streaming media would be a cause for concern if it was only locally based mom'n pop merchants? On 10/18/05, chip <chiapas@riseup.net> wrote:> hi > > Michael Hobbs wrote: > > Hi All, > > > > Some time ago I emailed this list and mentioned (as well as a couple of > > techinical queries) that I was trying to contact the PRS for information > > on the copyright licencing requirements of a non-profit on-line radio > > station, a few people expressed interest in this and asked I keep them > > updated. Well I just sent my third email (transcript below) informing them > > that I will assume a further lack of response as permission from them to > > play whatever. > > don't forget PPL - there's more on this here: > > http://www.mediauk.com/article/1 > > you could always contact the Community Media Association who run a free > streaming service for members and who are in some sort of dialogue with > the MCPS-PRS: > > http://www.commedia.org.uk/ > > but at the end of the day if the MCPS-PRS are too overwhelmed to be able > to respond to your emails and letters then it sounds like they hardly have > the resources and will power to enforce the licencing requirements that > are in place. > > cheers > > chip > > _______________________________________________ > Icecast mailing list > Icecast@xiph.org > http://lists.xiph.org/mailman/listinfo/icecast >