I am not an attorney, but I don't believe BMI would have a legal leg to stand on attemting to collect fees. Especially since you have a x-mitter "for your own personal hobby use" to hear your music around the house. Also, you are not supposed to broadcast any Call Letters on your Part 15 personal use stations (although you may broadcast a slogan). Therfore you are not a Broadcast station. Is BMI going to say because you play AC/DC loud on your home stereo system and your neighbor hears it as well, that you now owe BMI a fee? They could try, but legally I don't think it would fly.
I am not a lawyer either, but I believe that TECHNICALLY if you play your stereo loud enough to constitute a "public performance" that you TECHNICALLY could get wacked for music fees.
I don't know if any of you remember, but a while ago there was a stink about the person who owned the copyright to "happy birthday" and how they wanted people to pay every time happy birthday was sung.
OK, but the point I'm trying to make is that if I put a part 15 station on the air as a hobby for my kids and I to hear around the house and on my acerage, didn't make a dime off it, didn't take out any advertising in the local paper, and by chance if some of the neighbors happened to discover it and listen in, so be it. It is really nothing more than an over the air intercom, for my personal use,with no Call letters etc. The only difference being that the music source is delivered via airwave rather than by intercom wire. Again, you are assuming that you are a
"Broadcaster" and with the tiny limited range of a Part 15, you are not a Broadcaster by the legal definition according to the FCC, unless you break the rules, power up, at which point you become a "Pirate".
Also, you may want to go to the FCC's web site www.fcc.gov and read Part 15 which uses the terms "Individual use" and "hobbyist use" in several places. I'm sure that BMI would love to call you a Broadcast Radio station so it can collect fees. But the U.S Government says otherwise under federal law. So should BMI try to press this issue and collect, they would be contradicting the FCC, and probably then BMI would be violating numerous federal,state and local laws regarding collections and business practices. So if you want to be "totally legal" you can sleep well knowing you have Federal Law on your side.
Ok .. so this is all good for stations which are run for "you and your kids" but what about like Manteca? Or the station I'm running, which are community stations? Run for and BY the community.. where the goal is to GET community to listen and interact.. not just your kids.. and where you may actually sell some advertising (albeit cheaply), or give it away to non-profits, and where you DO advertise your station in various downtown establishments (ie the coffee shop, etc).
Matth, I would ask if you are considered a business? Do you make a declared income from operating these stations? Make a profit or is all plowed into station improvements/operations? (My station is a money pit!)
I am not in the broadcasting business. It's a hobby that has alturistic applications such a community service. I'd suggest that if you feel it necessary to pay these fees then declare yourself a business! Who knows, maybe all the losses you claim can be turned around and used to pay the fees 😆 .
I don't feel it neccessary to pay these fees at all. I contacted BMI back in October as I was reseaching Part15 station information, to find out what, if any licensing would be required to play BMI music. They told me there was no license... other part 15ers confirmed this as I began to find message boards and such and talk to people.
BMI contacted me just in the last week and said that they now have a license for part-15 stations. I do not know why they contacted only me and none of the other people who have ever contacted them (unless those people just aren't on this board).
I never badgered them, or said hey I really want a license... all I asked was if there was a license... to which they told me "no".
Matth,
Read the below for info on how the PART15 community is going to kick the bucket!
http://www.radio-info.com/mods/board?Post=361689&Board=community
I truely do have to say I am sorry for those who believe that I am fully at fault for this. I assure you and everyone as I told William.. I contacted BMI back in October when I was first researching Part-15 stuff. They said there was no license at that time. Now about a week ago, they sent me an e-mail saying they had finally put togethor licensing information. Why they would have sent it to me and no one else who asked I don't know (unless they either aren't on this board, or aren't speaking up about it?).
I think the simple answer is that the record industry is in the toilet/dumpster/refuse pile of choice; it needs to find money wherever it can. Looking to Part-15 operations as a revenue source is sort of grasping at straws as they sink into the abyss.
OK, here I go again...
1. Let's not blame matth for BMI's action. I'm surprised that BMI actually created a Part 15 music license. However, given the control trip that the content cartel is on, I've been afraid that it was only a matter of time until ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, or some other outfit turned their attention to Part 15 broadcasters.
2. Kraushar, I have to disagree with you about how solid BMI's legal basis would be for going after Part 15 broadcasters. The Copyright Act of 1976 made big changes favoring copyright holders over "the rest of us." That's why the royalties exemption for radio nonprofits was phased out in 1978. matth is also correct that you start getting onto thin ice if you do anything that can be considered a "public performance." Whether you make money or not is irrelevant. As far as any "fair use" argument goes, someone basically summed up fair use as the right to hire an attorney. So much for that. matth is also right about "Happy Birthday" being under copyright; some restaurants were told that their staff were not to sing the song for anyone. If customers wanted to sing it, that was OK, but not the staff or the restaurant would have to pay royalties.
3. Sorry to sound so down. However, this should say some things as to why citizens have to get involved with this intellectual property stuff. A lot of it isn't terribly exciting until your ox gets gored, and the content cartel will assure you right up to that point that your ox is absolutely safe.
4. frankh19: The record companies get royalties from digital broadcasts, but not analog ones (regular TV/radio). They may be desperate, but they get no hope here. The composer/publisher outfits (ASCAP, BMI, SESAC, etc.) collect from both types of broadcasts.
Done bothering you all again...
I guess I should have said music industry as opposed to record industry. At any rate, they're still grasping at straws if they're looking at Part-15 for revenue.
I agree with Frank. The music industry is certainly grasping at straws if they think they are going to get Part 15 stations to pay up. These Part 15 stations can disappear,reappear, change frequencies,move transmitter locations, Call letters ie "Slogans" websites etc. so fast that it can make your head spin, and all with no FCC data base. I could see them going after some of the more sucessful "Internet Only" radio stations that have to maintain a constant website and server and having more sucess in that arena.
I don't know if the music industry is grasping at straws for revenue, but they are definitely grasping.
Remember that ASCAP was demanding that the Girl Scouts take out a license for the songs they sang around the old campfire. The resultant outcry forced ASCAP to backpedal quite a bit, but they were still able to get the Girl Scouts to sign onto a dollar-a-year license. ASCAP was quite insistent to establish its doctrine that vassals must pay tribute.
Why won't BMI do a dollar-a-year deal for the majority of Part 15 stations that don't make dime one, and in fact are at least a bit of a money pit? Because the content cartel is not going to make any concessions unless it absolutely has to. Given its lobbying largesse, at both state and federal levels, I don't look for that to happen anytime soon.
Downer again, sorry...
I don't believe any Part 15 station is required to pay BMI fees. Of course if you contact them about it and tell them you are a broadcaster with a radio station, they would love to take your money.
However, you are NOT broadcasters, no matter how bad you want to be. You are MICROcasters. Putting on a legal station with no FCC license required, for your own personal use around your house and in your yard. If your neighbors hear it, so be it.
It's like me singing in the shower with my bathroom widow open. If the neighbor wants to hear it he can leave his window open, if not, he can close it.
After reading all the above posts, it appears that some have set a very dangerous and expensive precident. and I agree with your assesment touting the shower concept ,if I am simulcasting an internet station in the realm of my house and others tune in and listen does this constitute broadcasting?
If I use a divorced antenna on a part 15 FM transmitter but am in the radiation limits is it illegal?
I use a part 15 FM cCrane transmitter at work and it is fairly pathetic plus the fact that it is a metal building,ugh!