Will The RIAA Target Podcasters Next?
Opinion/Analysis
The concept of podcasting has exploded in less than a year into a rush by not only would-be talk show hosts and deejays but commercial Radio companies who realize the potential of reaching listeners who wish to control what they hear when they hear it.
For those podcasters who make available original programming featuring interviews or audio they originate themselves or who own copyrights to any music they distribute, they need not worry about the Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group which represents the recording industry.
But, lately – especially in podcast discussion groups – podcasters are wondering if they might be in the RIAA’s gunsights.
YES. If history is any
indication, you can bet on it.
The problem is: it's file sharing - not in the sense we have come to know over
the last few years - but file sharing just the same.
Terminology and definitions continue to evolve in this new world of audio
transmission. But, I don't know what else to call it when a user subscribes to a
podcast and he or she requests digital information via download because someone
on the other end is offering it. Of course, whether or not this file contains
copyrighted material provides the real condundrum.
Let's say you're a podcaster and you originate a 15 minute podcast each week
highlighting your favorite cuts from CDs you recently purchased. You have
hundreds of subscribers who download your show. Aside from the addition of your
voice, this is - in effect - the same thing the RIAA has been suing thousands of
people for over the past few years. It is still distribution of copyrighted
material, without royalties collected on behalf of the copyright holder.
Tell me how you define it any other way. We can't call it broadcasting. We can't
call it streaming. What is it then?
You may not have the reach of a Grokster or Kazaa, but when somebody downloads
your podcast, the RIAA may argue you are file sharing just the same. And if it’s
copyrighted material, you are distributing it without permission, remuneration
or royalty to the artist(s) who own it. This is exactly the issue with
peer-to-peer file sharing that has infuriated the RIAA, only now the
distribution method is achieved in a more direct fashion.
You can be assured the RIAA is watching podcasting very carefully and in my
opinion it's only a matter of time before they step in and demand a graduated
royalty structure be established for podcasters.
David Luebbert
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