BONNEVILLE INTERNATIONAL CORP. V. PETERS: CONSIDERING COPYRIGHT RULES TO FACILITATE LICENSING FOR WEBCASTING

摘要

Among the many questions about the legal landscape for webcasting, Bonneville International Corp. v. Peters clarifies how copyright law applies to the "listen live" function on your favorite AM or FM radio station's website. On October 17, 2003, the Third Circuit held that such "AM/FM webcasts" must pay a public performance royalty to owners of sound recordings, thus narrowly defining the digital public performance right exemption for a "nonsubscription broadcast transmission" codified at 17 U.S.C. § 114(d)(1)(A). This decision is prudent for webcasting because it denies terrestrial radio stations a royalty exemption that would provide them with an unfair competitive advantage over web-only stations. Furthermore, AM/FM webcasting is already recovering from the deadly blow that Bonneville was predicted to be, showing that fair competition can promote healthy markets online as elsewhere. Positive though it may be, the Bonneville decision sorts out only one small strand within the intricate web of rules and exemptions that Congress has woven to create the limited rights available for sound recordings. The complex statutory compulsory licensing scheme that currently administers the digital public performance right seems out of sync with facilitating the exchange of licenses-presumably its purpose. Thus, as some copyright rules for webcasting become clearer, the system overall remains too byzantine to allow the online broadcasting industry to stabilize.