Jari Ketola
14 Jan 2004 18:05
Music publishers and songwriters have begun demanding double royalty payments for copy protected music CDs, that contain the audio tracks in two formats -- in crippled pseudo Audio-CD format and in compressed digital format. The reasoning behind the demands is quite simple -- since two copies of the song are being sold, the royalty payments should also be made for two copies.
"From a legal standpoint, the position of the music publishers is that these discs contain two separate (copies of each song)," said Cary Ramos, an attorney representing the National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA). "The fact that they are the same recording doesn't mean that we should treat it as one."
NMPA is making a valid point, since even by RIAA's standards, an Audio CD and a digital MP3/WMA file are two separate products, even if the consumer owns the Audio CD in question. RIAA argued and pursued this point years ago in, for instance, the My.MP3.com case.
New digital distribution channels could mean greater revenue shares for recording artists, but they will have to make their case early, and make it strong.
Source: News.com