p2pnet - rss feed: Cuban agrees with Geist
p2pnet.net news:- “Online radio is one of the Internet’s quiet success stories,” says Canadian law professor and Net expert Michael Geist, going on, “While podcasting and Internet video garner the lion share of attention, webcasting has emerged as a major force with millions tuning in daily to thousands of services that freely stream their signals online.”
He also says, “Given the concern about the future viability of Internet radio in the U.S., there has been mounting speculation that some webcasters may consider setting up shop in Canada, where the U.S. rates do not apply.”
Net entrepreneur Mark Cuban (right) would agree.
Way back in the last century, when he was still running Yahoo’s broadcast services division, he, “lambasted key players in the industry and called on streaming media providers to ‘fight back’ against unfair regulation,” said a ZDNet News story of the time.
In it, Cuban named the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), “No. 1 on my bad guy list” saying it’d made streaming media providers the, “poster children of abuse by the music industry.”
His solution?
“Move your servers to Canada.”
These days Cuban is, among other things, a digital movie maker and chairman of HDNet, and p2pnet asked him how he saw things in 2007.
“My views haven’t changed in eight years,” he replied.
“Hopefully Canada will recognize the opportunity they have to become a technology leader and take advantage of it.
In March, Cuban blogged:
Friday was a sad day , no, make that a shocking day in the webcasting community. On Friday, the Copyright Royalty Board finalized the webcasting royalty rate based on a cost per play, with a 500 dollar minimum per channel , while also completely eliminating any percentage of revenue options. In a nutshell it was the day the internet music died.
Rather than going through the entire obituary, I will defer to Kurt Hansons wonderful RAIN site for all the gory details.
I remember setting up servers from progressive networks and xing to stream AudioNets first station, KLIF in 1995. I remember creating Christmas stations, Elvis stations and letting people program their own internet radio station. Then as with now, the vast majority of streaming took place during the day in the office.
Everything that is happening with video now, happened first with audio.
Meanwhile, “Those expecting strict broadcast regulation from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission will be pleasantly surprised to learn that webcasters operate outside of conventional broadcast regulation in Canada,” says Geist. “The 1999 CRTC New Media Decision exempts webcasters, thereby relieving them of the need to obtain licenses or meet Canadian content requirements.”
But, “The copyright concerns associated with webcasting are far more challenging,” he stresses. “While there are options that allow non-commercial webcasters to stream music without paying significant royalties … streaming commercial music will require royalty and license payments.”
Also See:
quiet success stories - Net radio - streaming North?, April 9, 2007
ZDNet News - Streaming industry headed to Canada?, December 6, 1999
blogged - Say Goodbye to Webcasting, March 5, 2007
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