NAB is reviewing options following Wed.’s federal court ruling th...
NAB is reviewing options following Wed.’s federal court ruling that broadcasters must pay royalties for AM/FM signals streamed simultaneously over Internet, NAB CEO Edward Fritts said. NAB filed suit in U.S. Dist. Court, Philadelphia, after U.S. Copyright Office refused…
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to exempt streamed broadcast signals from limited public performance right provision of copyright law. Plaintiffs alleged that Office’s rulemaking exceeded its statutory authority and asked court to declare that broadcasters who streamed nonsubscription transmissions of their over-air programs were exempt from digital performance right provision and were eligible for single ephemeral copy exemption of law. Court sided with Copyright Office, saying its ruling was reasonable, particularly given Congress’s silence on issue. It’s possible that Congress might choose one day to address whether AM/FM Webcasters should be exempt from public performance right, Judge Berle Schiller wrote. “However, as Judge Learned Hand aptly noted almost 60 years ago, it is not ‘desirable for a lower court to embrace the exhilarating opportunity of anticipating a doctrine which may be in the womb of time but whose birth is distant…'” NAB is “disappointed” that “unique relationship” among broadcasters, record companies and consumers will be disrupted by decision, Fritts said.