Aug 28 2009
Second Circuit Rules that Yahoo Doesn’t Have to Pay Fees to Record Labels for Webcasting Songs
In a decision applauded by webcasters and lamented by the recording industry, the Second Circuit ruled last week that individualized radio stations–such as those offered by LAUNCHcast and Pandora–are not “interactive services” under the DMCA, freeing the webcasters from the potentially massive financial burden of having to pay licensing fees to record labels for the transmission of sound recordings as part of their services. The decision was the first by a federal court of appeals to examine the hotly-debated issue.
The suit, originally filed in 2001 by several labels owned by Sony BMG, including Arista, Bad Boy and Zomba, alleged that LAUNCHcast, a webcasting service run by Yahoo’s Launch Media unit, which enables users to create “stations” that play songs within a particular genre or similar to a particular artist or song, violated provisions of the DMCA that required payment of licensing fees for the use of sound recordings in an “interactive” service.” Continue Reading »
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