Copyright Office Threatens Web Broadcasting

Online Newsletter, May, 2002

In an unprecedented invasion of listener privacy, the U.S. Copyright Office has proposed that Internet webcasters be required to gather and report to copyright owners information about individual listeners, including their country of origin, local time zone, and a unique user identifier.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), the California community broadcaster KPFA, and the Fresno Free College Foundation's KFCF 88.5, during April, sent the U.S. Copyright Office a joint comment opposing its proposed webcaster recordkeeping requirements.

In the meantime, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), has dropped its request to the Copyright Office that webcasters be required to submit detailed records of user information.

EFF Senior Intellectual Property Attorney Fred von Lohmann said that "The Copyright Office's policy will drive smaller webcasters off the Internet by enforcing the expense of tracking 25 pieces of information for every song they broadcast." - "The same policy establishes an unprecedented violation of listener privacy by tracking and providing to copyright holders a 'unique identifier' for each listener."

The Copyright Office rulemaking addresses the kinds of records webcasters must hand over to copyright holders as part of their royalty obligations under the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

While much attention has been paid to the royalty rates being proposed by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), little attention has been devoted to the recordkeeping requirements proposed by the Copyright Office.

For example, KFCF, a small community broadcaster in Fresno, California, operated by the Fresno Free College Foundation, estimates that gathering and reporting all the information required by the proposed regulations would require the hiring of an additional staffer, at a cost of at least $10-$15,000. This despite the fact that KFCF's total royalty obligation to record labels would only be $500 annually.

The U.S. Copyright Office deadline for filing comments was April 26.

The U.S. Copyright Office has also come under scrutiny involving other DMCA issues as well as its overall responsibilities for and the validity of U.S. copyright laws which will be reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court will review whether Congress overstepped its authority in copyright protection (see "U.S. Supreme Court Will Review Copyright Laws" 'Online Newsletter' March 2002 p.5). The Court's ruling is expected before mid-June.

More information is available on EFF's Web site at:

http://www.eff.org/IP/Audio/20020405_joint-co_comments.html

http://www.eff.org/IP/Audio/20020405_joint-co_comments.pdf