Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 10, 2010

Last week, the Department of Commerce's Internet Policy Task Force asked for comments on the relationship between the protection of copyrighted content on the Internet and the effect of such protections on technology innovation and the expectations of consumers. The purpose of the inquiry is to develop a report to be circulated among the various government departments that have power over the enforcement of copyrights and the development of rules and regulations that deal with copyrighted materi

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 25, 2010

The NAB Radio Board today voted to adopt a Terms Sheet to offer to the musicFirst Coalition which, if agreed to by musicFirst and adopted by Congress, will settle the contentious issue of whether to impose a sound recording performance royalty (the "performance tax") on over-the-air broadcasters. If adopted, that will mean that broadcasters in the United States, for the first time, will pay a royalty to artists and record labels, in addition to the royalties paid to ASCAP, BMI and SESA

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 31, 2010

The Copyright Office has just released a Notice of Inquiry asking whether Federal protection should be extended to sound recordings recorded prior to 1972. A sound recording is a song as recorded by a particular artist. Sound recordings were first protected under Federal law in 1972. Prior to that, unauthorized recordings or reproductions of an artist's recoding were policed under various state criminal and civil law.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 22, 2010

My station received a cease and desist letter for a third party political ad. What should we do? This is a question we hear more than ever these days from both broadcasters and cable operators. As we previously advised , this is not unexpected following the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United , which allowed third party money to be used freely for political advertising on behalf of candidates for federal office.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2010

The NAB Radio Show in Washington two weeks ago was a upbeat reflection of the present state of the broadcast industry. But sandwiched around that conference, in the last three weeks, I have spoken at three digital media conferences - and as someone who has grown up on over-the-air radio, and based a career on representing radio stations, the discussions at these conferences raised many questions about the future of the radio industry.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 16, 2010

Dave Oxenford this week conducted a seminar on legal issues facing broadcasters in their digital media efforts. The seminar was organized by the Michigan Association of Broadcasters , and originated before a group of broadcasters in Lansing, but was webcast live to broadcasters in ten other states. Dave addressed a variety of legal issues for broadcasters in connection with their website operations and other digital media platforms.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2010

Last week Congress adopted legislation to promote the accessibility of communications and media services. The law, entitled the “ Twenty First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 ”, is expected to be signed into law by President Obama, possibly as early as today, October 8th. The Act contains a number of changes to improve media accessibility, the most notable of which for broadcasters and cable operators is the reinstatement of the Commission’s defunct V

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 28, 2010

Last week, we wrote that the FCC is going ahead with a rulemaking looking at how broadband needs may require some reallocation of the TV spectrum to wireless uses. The initiation of a rulemaking on that issue is planned for the next FCC meeting in late November. With that proceeding about to begin, the FCC today froze all applications for new Low Power Television (LPTV) stations and for TV Translators , and for major changes in existing LPTV and TV translator stations.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 27, 2010

Earlier this week, I posted a Top Ten list of legal issues that should keep a broadcast station operator up at night. In two orders released today, the FCC found stations where these issues apparently had not been keeping their operators awake, as the FCC issued fines for numerous violations. At one station, the FCC found that the EAS monitor was not working, the fence around the AM tower site was unlocked , and the station had no public inspection file, resulting in a $5500 fine (see the FCC's

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 18, 2010

The Commission's recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making proposing a framework and time line for the transition of Low Power Television stations to digital operations -- which we wrote about last month here -- was published in the Federal Register today setting December 17, 2010 as the deadline for Comments and January 18, 2011 as the deadline for Reply Comments.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 3, 2010

Broadcasters have a host of other legal issues that they should consider in connection with their digital presence. At last week's Maine Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention in Bangor, Dave Oxenford addressed these issues, including service marks and copyrights, employment matters, music on websites, the use of social media, privacy and sponsorship disclosure.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 29, 2010

The nuts and bolts of legal issues for broadcasters were highlighted in two sessions in which I participated at last week's joint convention of the Oregon and Washington State Broadcasters Associations , held in Stephenson, Washington, on the Columbia River that divides the two states. Initially, I conducted a seminar for broadcasters providing a refresher on their EEO recruiting obligations set out under FCC rules.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 26, 2010

As summarized by Brian Hurh on our sister site broadbandlawadvisor.com , yesterday the FCC's Consumer and Government Affairs Bureau released a Public Notice seeking comments to refresh the record on closed captioning that was last addressed in the Commission's 2005 and 2008 Closed Captioning NPRMs. As recognized by the Commission, much has happened since those proceedings, both technologically and regulatory.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 24, 2010

So what Washington issues should be keeping broadcasters up at night? At the Connecticut Broadcasters Association Annual Convention in Hartford on October 14, and the Kansas Association of Broadcasters Annual Convention in Wichita on October 18, I presented my Top 10 list of issues for broadcasters – dealing with issues both practical and policy-based.

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Broadcast Law Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2010

In the waning days before the mid-term election, we have received many questions about the applicability of the political broadcasting rules to state and local candidates. In particular, we have seen a number of letters from attorneys representing candidates who are running for state and local offices (everything from Governor to county commissioner or school board representative), who claim that an attack by an opposing candidate is unfounded and that a broadcast station must pull that ad from

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