The aircheck website ReelRadio has received notice from the
Recording Industry Association of America regarding non-compliance with
conditions of their statutory license. The statutory license allows ReelRadio
to stream music sound recordings heard in our "unscoped" airchecks.
However, the statutory license requires licensees to observe specific
conditions as to the transmission of musical programs online.
Some 1,147 unscoped airchecks are currently unavailable on
the subscription-based website.
According to aircheck curator Uncle Ricky, “the RIAA has
determined that our service fails to meet the requirements for "archived
programs", which must be at least five hours in duration and may not be
made available for more than two weeks. The service must also display the
Title, Artist and Album of each featured song, but only while the recording is
being performed. You have probably seen this type of "online radio
station" elsewhere on the Web.
Obviously, we have no single airchecks with a duration of
five hours, and our exhibits are permanent. Our current method for streaming
content does not allow real-time metadata, such as artist and title, to be
included in the media file.”
He also said in a posted statement, “The RIAA has asked
ReelRadio to remedy these violations to continue operating under the statutory
license. Further, the RIAA insists that we obtain permission from the copyright
owners of these old radio broadcasts. Many broadcasters understand the
difficulty of this requirement, since nearly all radio stations have changed
ownership, format, and call letters, many times over. Nevertheless, we are
expected to provide the RIAA with an explanation of how we have permission from
radio stations that no longer exist and copyright owners who have no interest
in historic recordings of their property. The law is too narrow and should obviously
be amended to include genuine "historical archive" sites, like
Reelradio.”
ReelRadio has suspended streaming of unscoped airchecks and
currently, they are not offering renewals or new subscriptions. ReelRadio has
until August 8 to respond to the RIAA.
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