Webcaster Royalty Compromise Discussed

from the no-deal-yet... dept

Webcasters and the music industry are apparently trying to hash out a last minute compromise deal that will let some smaller webcasters stay in business, without having to pay the extortion rates set by the government. The proposal currently on the table would let webcasters with less than $1.5 million in revenue pay a percentage of revenue. Not everyone is happy with this proposal and it could still fall through. Larger webcasters would have to pay a fixed fee of $11.20 per 1,000 people listening each hour - which some still criticize as being too high. Of course, I wonder what this means for hobby webcasters. What if they make no revenue? Would that mean they could webcast for free? If that's true (and somehow I doubt it is), that could be a huge boost for webcasting, as you'd have plenty of real fans webcasting stuff they like for the fun of it - and just enjoying the music.
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