This week, several notices of the intent to audit the records of several webcasters and other digital music services were published in the Federal Register, indicating that SoundExchange was planning on having the royalty payment records of these services reviewed. Notices were sent to services including Live365, iHeartMedia and CBS). Those notices have prompted several … Continue Reading
Last week, the Copyright Royalty Board asked for comments on a proposed settlement agreement between Sirius XM and SoundExchange, and some articles about that announcement have not been entirely clear about what the deal covers. It has nothing to do with webcasting royalties for 2016-2020, which are still being litigated (see our article here about … Continue Reading
But increase in antitrust review thresholds is the smallest inflation adjustment in years. Another annual ritual is upon us: the Federal Trade Commission has announced the dollar value thresholds that will trigger automatic federal review of mergers an...
Five months ago we reported that, in a bit of regulatory tidying up, the Office of Engineering and Technology had updated the FCC’s rules. The Commission had, in 2012, incorporated by reference into its rules a standard – ANSI C63.17-2006, ...
By Scott R. Flick I wrote in March of last year that the FCC had proposed fines of $1,120,000 against Viacom, $530,000 against NBCUniversal, and $280,000 against ESPN for airing ads for the movie Olympus Has Fallen that promoted the movie with an EA...
With the Martin Luther King Day holiday just passed, it seems appropriate to review the FCC’s EEO rules, which look to promote broad access to broadcast employment opportunities. The FCC’s EEO rules no longer seek exclusively to promote minority employment, but instead seek to have stations reach out to all groups within the area they … Continue Reading
The biggest scandal this time of the year tends to be the NFL’s heavy-handed efforts to protect trademarks, even those it doesn’t own. It’s no secret that we here in the CommLawBlog bunker don’t fully approve of the NFL’s ...
By Paul A. Cicelski The press has been abuzz in recent months regarding the launch of various Internet-based video services and the FCC's decision to revisit its current definition of Multichannel Video Programming Distributors (MVPDs). In December, ...
Who says that the Internet is not regulated? Whether to treat Internet video providers by the same rules that apply to cable and direct broadcast satellite systems is the subject of a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking released by the FCC just before Christmas, notice of which was published in the Federal Register today, setting the … Continue Reading