Operating in the public interest for the local area

[Garrett Wollman]

<<On Sat, 8 Nov 2008 10:29:49 -0500, "Alan Tolz" <atolz@comcast.net> said:

> Sadly, ARB can't really get a handle on how to treat this from a
> ratings perspective - diary or PPM - especially if stations choose
> to simulcast rather than try to monetize their internet streams
> separately.

I feel strangely compelled to point out that ARB changed its name to
Arbitron quite a long time ago now....

Of course, the ratings perspective looks even worse when you add in
listenership to BBC Radio 4 and NRK Alltid Klassisk, for example.
There's also some disagreement over where the "performance" occurs;
the RIAA (and thus U.S. Government) position seems to be that it
occurs in the United States if either the listener or the broadcaster
is located here.  I could imagine other national governments taking
the same position; at some point there is probably going to have to be
some WTO rule to determine who gets royalties (and who is liable for
defamation, for that matter) in which country.  I don't hold out hope
that this will be done sensibly, since the position of the U.S. has
always been (regardless of administration) to cave 100% to the
intellectual-property industry and then use the WTO to force bad
policy on us that would never pass Congress on its merits.

-GAWollman