Thank you for taking the time to write to me regarding the new royalty rates for online radio. I always enjoy hearing from New Yorkers about challenging public policy issues that are important to them, and I particularly appreciate your concerns regarding the future of internet radio. As you may know, I am a strong supporter of maintaining an open Internet that fosters innovation. No other communications medium in recent history has had such a profound impact on the expression of speech, education, the dissemination of information and the exchange of ideas.
Online radio is a great example of how the Internet has helped to cultivate innovation and offered consumers access to new and personalized information. But the great technological and commercial progress that has come with the ongoing development of the Internet has also brought with it numerous new public policy dilemmas, such as how to properly balance copyright protection for music and other property with the innovation that the Internet continues to cultivate.
As you know, in March 2007 the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) proposed a new online radio royalty structure, which would amend the system that has been in place since 2002 and establish a new scale for royalties charged to internet radio companies on a per-song, per-listener basis. The proposed rates begin at 0.08 cents per song per listener, retroactive to January 1, 2006 and could reach 0.19 cents per song per listener in 2010. In early July 2007, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. C ircuit rejected the request of a number of impacted webcasters that the implementation of the new rates be delayed pending their appeal of the CRB's decision, and the new rates went into effect on July 15.
Since that time, however, Sound Exchange, the organization that collects online radio royalties for the Recording Industry Association of America, and a broad coalition of webcasters have been negotiating potential compromise agreements on royalty rates. As those negotiations continue, I will continue to monitor this situation with the hope that they produce a fair and equitable resolution for all sides.
Thank you again for sharing your concerns regarding this important internet radio issue with me. Please be assured that I will continue to follow this issue closely and that I will keep your views in mind in the future as the situation plays out. For more information on my support for an open internet and other important issues before the United States Senate, please visit clinton.senate.gov.
Sincerely,
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton
