On Friday, the United States Copyright Royalty Board announced new royalty rates for webcasts, effective from 2006 to 2010. The new rates force webcasters to pay for each traditionally copyrighted song streamed to each user, and increase over the next few years as follows: 2006: $0.0008 to stream one song to one listener 2007: $.0011 […]

The Wall Street Journal today has a myopic report on the state of music podcasting, saying that podcasters have failed to make headway in the area of music podcasts. The focus of the article is on the mainstream music industry’s tentative steps into the world of podcasting, but the article ignores the tremendous popularity of […]

The Creative Commons licenses provide a way for content creators to allow free distribution of their work, while also protecting the works commercial value. A key concept of the licenses is that, if you decide to share your music, videos or other creations with a CC license, other people and companies will respect that decision, […]

Apple has applied for several patents relating to podcasting: Acquisition, management and synchronization of podcasts relates to acquiring and playing podcasts on a portable media device. Techniques and systems for supporting podcasting relates to receiving a portable subscription file that is used to facilitate subscribing to the podcast; accessing the portable subscription file to obtain […]

One more sign that YouTube as you know it is dead: the site has quietly purged over 30,000 videos after receiving complaints of copyright infringement. According to a report in the New York Times, nearly 30,000 clips of TV shows, movies and music videos were taken down after the Japanese Society for Rights of Authors, […]

Rumors of a Google acquisition of YouTube, which started at the TechCrunch technology blog, have run wild over the last few days. The Wall Street Journal followed the TechCrunch post by reporting that Google is in talks to buy the popular video-sharing site, citing the TechCrunch blog and a person familiar with the matter. Since […]

The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation has released a statement that calls Net Neutrality, the idea Internet providers should handle all Internet traffic equally, whether it’s your traffic or Verizon’s, “onerous” or a burden. The issue is of importance to podcast and podcast fans. If traffic from large corporations gets favored over […]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with a variety of individual podcasters and podcasting-related organizations, have released a joint statement opposing a new draft treaty being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organization, fearing that it could stifle innovation in podcasting and other forms of Internet distribution. “The Treaty will stifle innovation in podcasting-related technologies because […]

RISA, the Recording Industry of South Africa, is accusing 5FM, one of SABC’s most profitable radio stations, of abusing copyright and illegally sharing of music, because of the station’s podcast. RiSA’s general manager, David du Plessis, said they advised the SABC in November to conduct their podcasting operations within mutually agreed parameters of the Copyright […]

PodShow, a podcasting network founded by Adam Curry which has proven to be no stranger to controversy, is being accused of hijacking Rocketboom’s copyrighted video content. Here’s what has Rocketboom concerned: Podshow appears to be displaying Rocketboom’s content in violation of Rocketboom’s license agreement: “Podshow is self-agrandizing by hotlinking Rocketboom into their player,” according to […]