p2pnet.net news:- An intriguing discussion has surfaced on The Velvet Rope between SoundExchange spokesman John Simson and entertainment lawyer (and p2pnet contributor) Fred Willhelms (right).

The Velvet Rope is a music business gossip board, “with a very low signal to noise ratio when it comes to coherent discussion for any period of time,” says Wilhelms in an email.

He goes on, “There’s been a rather long ongoing discussion about the CRB rates, and one musician who’s still a bit confused invited Simson to come make his argument. Heaven knows why Simson accepted. But he did.

“He chose to address me directly in his first post, and limited himself to the issue you uncovered with that 40% reserve. I said that no organization that claimed to know every recording played on every Internet station needed a reserve, because they already knew where all the money was going.

“What he posted was stunning to me, and not just because he addressed me directly” >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Fred:

I will respond to your other points later but your point about census data is inaccurate. While we have campaigned heavily to receive complete data from all services, we only receive census data from XM and Sirius, Muzak, Music Choice and Capstar (formerly DMX). We are able to distribute these royalties on a pay for play basis because we get all data.

From 1998 until March 31, 2004, Webcasters and Broadcasters had no obligation to give us data – even though the statute provided that services were to provide “reasonable notice of use of a sound recording”. Finally the Copyright Office issued interim regulations requiring a 2 week sample for each calendar quarter commencing on April 1, 2004. However, since the Copyright Office did not specify the format in which that data should be provided (Excel, crayon, ASCII, etc…) we received little if any data from services and the format specifications were not issued until the CRB issued them in November of last year. Despite this ruling, we have yet to receive such reports from the vast majority of licensees.

Small webcasters under the SWSA bill of 2003 were supposed to provide us with census data. Few have been compliant in providing their reports of use. 25% have been totally non-compliant.

So, if someone is being performed on satellite radio or cable music services it is pure pay for play and SoundExchange will have those records in our database. If someone is being performed on a webcast, we will only have record if it falls within the sampled period of time reported by that service.

As someone who represented many independent labels and artists, in the past, I never liked samples as you could be left out despite being played. We have aggressively fought for census data and have been successful with satellite and cable but not with web radio. The Copyright Office in its interim ruling

indicated that census data might be required in the future but wanted people to start reporting sampled data now. For the most part, we are still waiting on that data. *

I replied:

Ah. So your own FAQ is incorrect when it says:

All royalties collected by SoundExchange are accompanied by extensive electronic play logs submitted by the statutory licensee, the service offering the digital transmission to consumers. These logs are “matched” to a database of unique sound recording information, which are in turn referenced to an SRCO and featured artist. This allows SoundExchange to accurately match unique performances with record companies and artists, and pay exactly what has been earned. SoundExchange has matched millions of digital performances from play logs submitted by the subscription services.

Perhaps you can take a moment and explain the sampling process and, if you wish to do so, tell us why SoundExchange has never revealed it is employing one, instead posting clearly incorrect information on your FAQ.

He came back with:

Fred:

If you read the FAQ more carefully you’d see it says “subscription services” – we get census data from subscription services. We have been very vocal and have often solicited the assistance of artists and labels to pressure the Copyright Office for census reporting from webcasters but we were unsuccessful in obtaining census data and instead are entitled to 2 weeks per calendar quarter from webcasting. We are continuing in our efforts to get census reporting – whether from the CRB or agreement with webcasters.

You can find these rulings of the Copyright Office and the CRB on the Copyright Office website. *

To which I courteously replied:

Please, John. Your FAQ says this:

“All royalties collected by SoundExchange are accompanied by extensive electronic play logs submitted by the statutory licensee, the service offering the digital transmission to consumers.”

It doesn’t say “Royalties from subscription service.” It says “All royalties collected by SoundExchange” without qualification.

Yes, you do go on to say “SoundExchange has matched millions of digital performances from play logs submitted by the subscription services.” I guess we should be reading between the lines to understand that means you haven’t got a really good idea who is being played on Internet radio yet.

But let’s go beyond the semantic swamp of your definition of “all”. Your FAQ doesn’t mention the sampling at all. The reader of the FAQ has no idea sampling is being used. At best, your explanation is woefully incomplete. At worst, it is misleading.

I scanned your press releases. You never mention the sampling, but you do repeatedly say that you offer “track level accounting” to all members. I take it that you mean that you offer “track level accounting” only on tracks played by subscription services.

You’re the one who said you wanted transparency in your operations. I don’t see you as really being off to a good start here.

He hasn’t replied to this.

You can’t beat this for entertainment.

Stay tuned …….

[NOTE: The Velvet Rope was offline when we received Fred's email and when we posted this.]

Slashdot it!

Also See:
you uncovered – SoundExchange slams IRE act, May 1, 2007

If your Net access is blocked by goverment restrictions, try Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at thIs the endSurvey: How Did Copyright Infringement Become Equated with Robbery? (of the Net) nigh?zze University of Toronto’s Munk Centre for International Studies. Go here for the official download, here for the p2pnet download, and here for details. And if you’re Chinese and you’re looking for a way to access independent Internet news sources, try Freegate, the DIT program written to help Chinese citizens circumvent web site blocking outside of China. Download it here.

---

rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php | | And use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site

---

Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 1:55 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

HOME

Viewed 6193 times