
Internet Radio Copyright Is Dumb: A Comprehensive Explainer - Amorymeltzer
http://motherboard.vice.com/en_uk/read/internet-radio-copyright-is-bad-and-dumb-a-comprehensive-explainer
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njharman
> The next time you have a fleeting thought about how internet radio sucks,
> and could be better—well, now you know what’s to blame. It’s copyright.

Can be broadened to "why does <insert aspect of creative culture> suck, blame
copyright.

~~~
6stringmerc
...and, if you want to know why things are going to continue to suck with
respect to Copyright, blame Congress for letting Disney and large corporations
rig the game for their interests.

~~~
hga
We also have to blame the Supremes. The Constitution is reasonably clear about
this in Article 1:

 _Section. 8.

The Congress shall have Power....

To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited
Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective
Writings and Discoveries;_

Perpetual copyright is most certainly not "for limited Times", but per
Wikipedia's analysis of _Eldred v. Ashcroft_
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldred_v._Ashcroft)):

 _However, the major argument for the act that carried over into the case was
that the Constitution specified that Congress only needed to set time limits
for copyright, the length of which was left to their discretion. Thus, as long
as the limit is not "forever," any limit set by Congress can be deemed
constitutional._

Although I suppose we should not be surprised, given how little respect they
show for so much else of the Constitution, e.g. my current pet peeve, we have
a right to keep arms, but not bear them outside our dwellings, another very
crabbed interpretation of clear language.

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ohitsdom
"It would be really difficult to track down every single composer for every
song that’s played on the radio—so onerous that it would be nearly impossible
to run a radio station."

In 2015, this really shouldn't be too difficult to solve. Somehow, it isn't,
so:

"So under copyright law, radio stations and other entities purchase blanket
licenses from associations like BMI and ASCAP, which lets them off the hook
for everything they play."

This would seem to screw smaller artists that aren't signed with big labels.
Shouldn't this be easy to solve with software? Pay for what actually gets
played. Blanket agreements only encourages stations to play composers covered
by those agreements.

~~~
michael_h
This is exactly my problem with how Spotify works. If I pay my $120 for a year
and listen exclusively to one obscure artist, that artist will get a tiny,tiny
fraction of the $80 that is payed out. Most of it will go to an artist that I
probably can't stand.

The explanations I've heard roughly equate to: it's too complicated. Oh
really? If only there was a machine that could _easily_ keep track of all that
information, we'd be all set.

~~~
parfe
So go to see that artist performing live where they get a far more substantial
chunk of money. Buy some merchandise direct from the band.

The antiquated idea is that an artist should be getting money for doing
absolutely nothing because they once recorded song months or years ago. If
they want to be paid they are perfectly capable of going out and working for
it.

~~~
aikah
What you don't get is that if a customer subscribes to Spotify, thinking its
money is going to the artists he listens, well, it isn't the case, most of the
money goes to Sony and co anyway, because they have a deal upfront with
Spotify where they will get X hundreds of millions no matter what.

So the customer money goes directly into big label's pockets. How that "new
model" is different from the old one? it's not it's exactly the same, aside
from the fact that even big artists are getting ripped off.

It has nothing to do with your rant about how artists should sell t-shirts,
posters, mugs because you know it's not tough enough to be musician, one must
also produce all that shit ....

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happyscrappy
Think of how crazy things are right now. With Spotify or Apple Music you can
just make lists of all the music you want and record the output. You could do
this with terrestrial radio(I did!) but you couldn't control what was played
so it was quite different. The only thing stopping people from having every
song they ever wanted for $10 is laziness.

~~~
jandrese
Some DJs also get instructed to talk over the beginning and ends of songs to
avoid people doing this. I remember being annoyed in the 90s that DJs would
never STFU when the song started, but learned later that it was at the request
of the cartels.

Hopefully this practice died when the Internet and death of cassette tapes
killed off radio mixtapes.

~~~
tempestn
Wow, do you have a source for that? Always irritated too, but I never
considered there might be a reason for it other than incompetence.

~~~
jandrese
Only hearsay sadly.

