Previously, I have posted about the possibilities of developing private Intranets using Part 15 wireless technology and streaming within those intranets as a replacement to over-the-air broadcasting.
I'm wondering if the new rates announced by the CRB for webcasting would apply in that scenario.
In fact, to me at least (but I'm admittedly not a lawyer), it would appear that neither over-the-air copyright licensing, or webcasting, would apply. Although in terms of the potential audience, it's probably closer to over-the-air broadcasting, with the relatively small geographical service area putting an upper limit on listenership.
You could even complicate the licensing further by making the network private, rather than public, and having people sign up (and possibly even pay) to get access to the Intranet.
My guess would be that it would fall under the same category as what jukeboxes require for legal operation. I think it's about $300 or $400 a year.. I notice most jukeboxes I've seen are BMI Jukeboxes, but not sure what that means.
It would be the same as yard casting. Since its private and most likely if you do not charge I don't see a problem with it. I would lookat it in the same way as broadcasting to your cars fm radio 3 feet away using a Belkin FM transmitter.
Well.. it's not private - Your entire scenerio is an effort to make it as public as possible, and requiring people to have to sign up to listen, regardless whether you charge for it or not, only further confirms that it's a public transmission, allbeit to a select group.
When it comes down to it, what your talking about would really be essentially the same as multiple studio transmission links to expand your coverage area - which is not uncommon, so I doesn't seem there's any question in the legality of your idea in general..
But if a part 15 broadcaster is required to pay BMI. ASCAP, and (I forget who the other one is), then theres nothing about your proposed set-up to indicate it would be a method of skirting around the requirement.
But then again, what your talking about isn't part15 broadcasting at all, nevertheless, the objective is the same, it's a local area transmission.
I'm not a lawyer either, nor do I have any personal concern about the legality of your proposed plans, you do what you want to do - but if your utimate objective is to legally transmit music to a listening audiance.. then you got to pay the fees.
I guess.
The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that streaming within an Intranet is exactly like broadcasting over the air. Within Part 15 or BETS-1/RSS210, you're allowed to use whatever mode you want. You can use SSB or FM on the AM band or even digital. This is nothing different - you're using wireless technology to deliver a digital stream. It is totally different from webcasting where you have the world at your fingertips, and it is also different than a jukebox where you essentially have a captive audience in the room.
Right now, my thinking is that I am going to cease my webcasting (I already have) due to copyright concerns. Both SOCAN and ReSound don't seem to care about over-the-air broadcasts. I will be experimenting with this Intranet idea but in the meantime, will continue to broadcast over the air.
Definition of Intranet, Wiki.
I don't see where the harm would be and have been doing this on and off for years.
No one outside of our home knows about this (until now) and since it is being offered only to my immediate family, only their devices could connect since they all know the wifi passphrase.
We have unreliable wifi out to the road some 70 feet from the house and barely can connect to the width of our property. Our land is odd, no back yard but plenty of front and side yard to one side of the house.
Ah, but I'm thinking of letting others use that private intranet in place of FM or AM broadcasting. It's exactly the same thing, but uses digital streaming instead of an analogue signal.
There are plenty of Access Points available that, if mounted high, can give extended range. I'm planning on using what I already have - a 1 watt 2.4 Ghz amplifier and an outside antenna that I'm trying to find a place to mount inconspicuously. We'll see what happens and what kind of range I get.
So that's why I recently went to your site and it was down!
I listened and will miss it.
But like I found out it's the webcasting that Re-sound and Socan care about although $25 a year(Re-sound) is really nothing....the keeping a log is the real problem.
I enjoyed listening!
Mark