Kakki, you have more patience than me (reading the FCC text)! Actually, these requirements are far in excess of those required for a regular radio station. A regular radio station is not even required to keep a set list. They pay blanket fees to ASCAP/BMI and the money is distributed to the members. There is electronic technology that can 'pull the songs out of the air' and identify them. (From Billboard:) "Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) Radio Track service...101 mainstream rock stations, 82 modern rock stations, 81 adult contemporary stations and 82 adult top 40 stations are electronically monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week..." Of course, as Kate pointed out, since they are major stations, they are mainly playing major artists, so that's what shows up on the charts. If these regulations are there to protect the copyright owners- a good thing-then, as I said before, there is software that can do that. Amazingly, bots can identify the 'signature' of any individual piece of music, and find it anywhere on the web, see where it's going, etc. They've been using it to hunt down Napster traders for some time now. There is certainly reason to suspect that these rules are there to squash competition. My local community radio station had to quit streaming music shows a year or two ago because the new FCC rules were so stringent they were not do-able. Things like you can't play more than 3 cuts from the same album in any 4 hour period. When you have DJ's coming and going every 2 hours, it's impossible to keep track of such things. Given the FCC and RIAA's recent history, well...... RR
Kakki wrote: > Kate, > > I read this and speed read through the actual proposed rules at > http://www.loc.gov/copyright/fedreg/2002/67fr5761.html > I may be completely off, but my reading is that it appears that these rules > have already been in effect since decisions in 1995 and 1997 to apply the > copyright law to internet and satellite broadcasters. The prior rules were > deemed "interim" to allow a period of time to fine tune them, as the new > technology was still developing. This latest proposal is to essentially > consolidate already existing rules. It seems that any type of broadcaster > is subject to the same reporting rules as AM/FM radio stations. Those > reporting regulations have always been to protect the copyright holder so > that there is a record for copyright holder to know how many times one of > their songs have been played, etc. to ensure they are being paid all > royalties due.
