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The BMI agreement expires on December 31, 2007.
The ASCAP agreement expires on December 31, 2007.
The SESAC agreement expires on Decmber 31, 2007.
The RIAA agreement expired on December 31, 2004. This license is currently in litigation. Please continue to register your site at this time. CPB will update you with status changes.
Register Here
Joint Memorandum from CPB, NPR and PBS
Performance of Musical Works on the Web;
BMI and SESAC agreements completed:
We are pleased to announce that CPB, NPR and PBS have secured new agreements
with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and SESAC, Inc. authorizing the performance
of musical works on the Internet. These agreements, together with agreements
entered in the last six months with the American Society of Composers,
Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and the Recording Industry Association
of America (RIAA), expand the ability of NPR member stations to distribute
music over the Internet and permit PBS, PBS member stations and other
CPB-qualified radio and television stations to begin distributing music
over the Internet. Upon registration for these licenses and provided that
all other non-music rights are already cleared, public broadcasting stations
will be permitted to simultaneously audio stream their audio broadcast
signals, to audio stream archival programming and to audio stream "side
channels" (Internet-only programming) on Web sites they own or control
(but not the sites owned or controlled by third parties on which a station's
content may appear).
The BMI agreement expires on December 31, 2007.
The ASCAP agreement expires on December 31, 2007.
The RIAA agreement expired on December 31, 2004.
The SESAC agreement expires on Decmber 31, 2007.
CPB will pay the license fees for the BMI, SESAC, ASCAP and RIAA license agreements.
Any public broadcasting station that wishes to use these agreements as
their license to distribute music or sound recordings over the Internet
must first register for the relevant licenses below. Radio stations must
register for the BMI, SESAC, ASCAP and RIAA licenses. Television stations
must register for the BMI, SESAC and ASCAP licenses. The RIAA license
does not apply to television stations. If your station has already registered
for the ASCAP and RIAA licenses, you do not have to register for those
licenses again, but you must register for the BMI and SESAC licenses.
Please read and review the terms of the licenses carefully. You must
comply with all of the conditions of these licenses. If you wish to be
covered by the licenses, you must indicate on the site's registration
form your agreement to be covered by the licenses and to comply with the
licenses' terms. You also must provide information about your station's
Web site(s). This information is necessary so that we can create a record
of all of the stations operating under the licenses. CPB must periodically
report this information to BMI, ASCAP, SESAC and RIAA .
If you do not elect to be covered by the licenses at this time, you may
do so in the future. In addition, if you elect to be covered by the licenses
at this time, you can later exclude your Web site(s) if you decide in
the future that you do not wish to be covered by the licenses.
When reviewing the license terms, you will note that the BMI, SESAC and
RIAA agreements do not permit covered Web sites to charge users a fee
for the right to receive transmissions of their programming (though less
explicit, it is also the intent of the ASCAP agreement). In addition,
the agreements do not authorize the downloading of musical works or the
provision of interactive, on-demand services where the user can access
the performance of a particular musical work upon request. Moreover, the
BMI agreement provides that covered transmissions by public television
stations will consist primarily of streaming of programs that are news,
public affairs, informational, "how-to" programs, promos promoting
the broadcast service, PBS or public television, and children's activities.
Please note that stations have certain record-keeping requirements with
respect to these licenses.
Digital Performance Rights in Sound Recordings: Significance of Rejection
of CARP Determination by Library of Congress:
On May 21, 2002, the Librarian of Congress rejected the February 2002
determination of the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) setting
the rates for the digital transmission of sound recordings. The Librarian
of Congress must issue its final written decision on the matter by June
20, 2002.
Please note that the Librarian's decision does not affect NPR member
stations and CPB-qualified stations. NPR and CPB negotiated a separate
license with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) covering
the digital performance (webcasting) of sound recordings by NPR member
stations and CPB-qualified radio stations. Stations have no financial
obligations under this agreement; CPB is paying the entire license fee.
As a result of this separate license with the RIAA, the rates recommended
by the CARP did not cover NPR member stations and CPB-qualified radio
stations. Accordingly, the Librarian's decision does not impact the NPR
and CPB negotiated license.
To sign up for or obtain more information about the RIAA license covering
NPR members and other CPB-qualified radio stations, please follow the
instructions below. Please remember that the terms of the RIAA license
are highly confidential. Any disclosure of these terms jeopardizes our
license with the RIAA and could subject an otherwise qualified radio station
to the statutory license rates applicable to all other webcasters, whatever
those rates may be.
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