The Sunset Kid's Blog
-
CRB Denies DiMA Legal Question Request 02/07/2008 04:29 PM
CRB Denies DiMA Legal Question Request
February 05, 2008
By Susan Butler, N.Y.
The Copyright Royalty Board today rejected a request by the Digital Media Assn. to have the Register of Copyrights decide whether interactive streams should fall under a compulsory license, Billboard.biz has learned.
The order came during the initial trial phase of the hearing process, which began in 2006, to set rates for mechanical and digital deliveries of compositions that fall under section 115 of the Copyright Act, known as the compulsory mechanical license provision. Parties to the proceeding include DiMA, the National Music Publishers' Assn. and the RIAA.
Among rates expected to be set by the three Copyright Royalty Judges in Washington, D.C., are mechanical royalties for physical units (such as CDs and enhanced CD singles that include more than an audio-only version of a recorded song) as well as digital phonorecord delivery (DPD) royalties for permanent downloads, limited downloads and streams that may involve reproduction and performance rights.
It's this latter form of distribution -- streams -- that prompted DiMA to request the CRB last month to refer a "novel question of law" to Register Marybeth Peters to decide whether or not they should be part of a compulsory license. Specifically, DiMA asked whether an interactive stream is a DPD under section 115.
In rejecting the request today, the judges wrote that there is no definition of "interactive" in the Copyright Act, and the parties did not all agree to its meaning. As a result, whether a transmission is interactive is a factual question to be decided by judges rather than a legal question to be decided by the Register.
This decision is a victory for publishers, many of whom believed that DiMA-member companies were, by this request, trying to renege on old contractual commitments to pay publishers a royalty for the right to reproduce compositions via streams.
The trial is expected to continue through May. A final decision is unlikely to come before October.
Link to Source| Flag as Inappropriate | 0 comments -
WORLD'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS 2 02/07/2008 04:28 PM
Man charged in break-in, counterfeiting Wed Feb 6, 5:45 PM ET
A man was arrested for allegedly breaking into a home and trying to use the computer there to make counterfeit money.
Charles Chase Nobles, 28, was booked Tuesday into the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center on one count each of counterfeiting, unauthorized entry of an inhabited dwelling and probation violation, according to a press release from Natchitoches Parish Sheriff Victor Jones Jr.
Goldonna Police Chief Kenneth Martin and Natchitoches sheriff's deputies made the arrest after getting a call at about 1 p.m. Tuesday from a citizen who reported seeing a suspicious vehicle parked in woods behind a Goldonna residence.
Martin and the deputies found Nobles inside. The computer was seized as a part of the ongoing investigation.
Link to Source| Flag as Inappropriate | 0 comments -
WORLD'S DUMBEST CRIMINALS 02/07/2008 04:25 PM
Vandalism claim nets arrest in burglary Wed Feb 6, 6:47 PM ET
They say problem gamblers never quit while they're ahead, and one properly insured Oregon man apparently didn't, either.
Authorities recovered a stolen antique slot machine worth $4,000 and arrested the 30-year-old, who they said asked his wife to help file an insurance claim to cover damage done to his van during the heist.
The slot machine was reported stolen in a burglary Monday night at a home in Sutherlin, 170 miles south of Portland, Douglas County sheriff's deputies said. Investigators learned that the victim's housekeeper filed a police report a day earlier claiming someone had thrown a piece of sheet metal through the window of her parked van.
The sheet metal turned out to be from the back of the stolen slot machine, with the serial number attached.
Deputies said the housekeeper's husband stole the machine, which tipped over as he drove away, breaking the van window. He told his wife the van had been vandalized and asked her to report the damage so insurance would cover it, deputies said.
The husband and a 25-year-old man were charged with burglary and theft, but the wife wasn't charged.
The case was still being investigated.
Link to Source| Flag as Inappropriate | 0 comments
