Medium Law by Daithí Mac Síthigh

Author:Daithí Mac Síthigh [Síthigh, Daithí Mac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Media Studies, Sociology, General, Law, Media & the Law
ISBN: 9781317195030
Google: 4WA1DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2017-09-13T04:36:57+00:00

The Internet has proven, to some extent, to be a platform for extending the reach of existing licensed services (although, of course, with the relevant regulators having no jurisdiction and often well beyond the geographic area as originally envisaged by the licence applicant).

The key source of legal control of Internet radio, whether in the form of simulcast of a broadcast service or a service native to the Internet, has been copyright law.66 This arose in the earlier days of the field, where there were frequent disputes between online services and collecting societies representing the interests of artists and record companies. In particular, the long-standing special position of broadcast radio in the US (whereby stations were not required to make performance right payments to the holders of mechanical rights i.e. record companies, but only to the holders of publishing rights, i.e. publishing companies on behalf of songwriters and composers) was not extended to online services. This was varied to some extent by legislative change, addressing the arguments that for some services, calculating fees on the basis of royalties, expenses, or a flat rate would be more appropriate than doing so per song.67

Despite these issues, though, Internet radio (more properly characterised as various audio streaming protocols) has had some successes, though even the terminology has been controversial.68 Initially, a key selling point was the wide range of stations available, including automated and music-only stations (many not broadcast) with quantity and range well beyond DAB or satellite.69 But an early criticism of Internet radio – that it was not sufficiently portable to deserve the name radio70 – is also being addressed, through easier computer-based access and access through devices not normally perceived as computers. The first is seen where a user has a single point of access to a high number of streams, such as TuneIn (which also offers a premium service as TuneIn Premium for £6 or $8/month),71 or through the directory of radio stations on iTunes. In the UK, the ‘Radioplayer’ project provides a convenient cross-platform app-or web-based front end for radio stations (BBC, commercial and community), restoring the idea of flicking through stations long familiar to radio listeners, with a small amount of additional material (track information of the type already available on DAB, photographs and web links, etc.). Radioplayer is available in other markets e.g. Ireland, Germany, and Norway. In the US, Clear Channel’s iheartradio app bundles together Clear Channel services by genre rather than location.72 The second point (non-‘computer’ access) is addressed through the availability of consumer devices in the UK are also available for Internet radio or as a combined DAB/Internet device. These devices access online streams through an Internet connection in the same way that a laptop would, but are presumably suitable for consumer use in a way that a laptop might not (e.g. in a kitchen, for inexperienced users). Beyond this, smartphones make useful devices for mobile access to radio through an Internet connection; as asked in a New York Times article on broadcast radio

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