Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 14, 2011

Last week, the Copyright Office published in the Federal Register the final decision of the Copyright Royalty Board on the statutory rates for Internet radio royalties - royalties paid by webcasters for the noninteractive streaming of sound recordings. As we have made clear before , these are royalties that are paid in addition to the royalties paid to ASCAP, BMI and SESAC for the public performance of the musical compositions (see our memo on Using Music in Digital Media , here , that explains

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The Paralegal Resource

DECEMBER 12, 2011

Law practice optimization (LPO) is the process of improving the services provided by the Legal Industry to their clients. In today's modern world, always being connected to your office and your clients is no longer just a luxury it is an absolute requirement. As we all know, the internet has opened the doors for the Legal Industry and allowed Law Firms to market and advertise themselves to the World Wide Web, through business advertising campaigns, which reach tens of thousands and perhaps milli

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LexBlog

DECEMBER 8, 2011

You work hard at the law firm all day. You generate letters, file paperwork, set up automatic mailings, keep track of checks, and manage your particular lawyer’s schedule so that he or she can concentrate on what they do, and they never miss a beat. There is no successful lawyer on the planet who became successful without a great legal assistant or paralegal like yourself.

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Paralegals Paralegal Legal Legal 40

ABC's of E-Discovery

NOVEMBER 29, 2011

What are disclosures? Texas Rule 194 - Request for Disclosure - 194.1 states a party may obtain disclosure from another party of the information or material listed in Rule 194.2 by serving the other party - no later than 30 days before the end of any applicable discovery period - the following request: "Pursuant to Rule 194, you are requested to disclose, within 30 days of service of this request, the information or material described in Rule [state rule, e.g., 194.2, or 194.2(a), (c), and (f),

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ESI 40

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Broadcast Law Blog

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

The FCC today upheld a $4000 fine issued to a broadcaster for broadcasting a telephone conversation without first getting the permission of the people on the other end of the line, denying reconsideration that the broadcaster had sought - arguing that the fine violated its First Amendment rights. The telephone conversation that led to the fine was between a station employee and two airport officials, about a controversy concerning the local airport.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 5, 2011

New ASCAP royalties are on their way to radio broadcasters. ASCAP and the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC ) have just announced that they have reached an agreement in principal to return to the percentage of revenue royalties that for so long were paid by radio stations to ASCAP and BMI – a system that was abandoned for a market-based flat-fee system designed to avoid having the licensing organizations as partners that shared in what stations believed would be forever rising radio re

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Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 18, 2011

As medical marijuana has become legalized or decriminalized in many states, broadcasters have looked at advertising for the services of clinics and dispensaries as a potential new revenue source. As some community newspapers and other local media have begun to advertise dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal, we’ve been asked many times whether broadcasters can start to run such ads as well.

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Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 28, 2011

With April Fool's Day only a few short days away, and with many articles running in the trade press about what stations should and shouldn't do on that day, we thought that we would weigh in with our own legal reminder - no matter what you do, be careful not to violate the FCC's rule against broadcast hoaxes. That rule, Section 73.1217 of the Commission's Rules, prevents stations from running any information about a "crime or catastrophe" on the air, if the broadcaster (1) knows the in

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Broadcast Law Blog

APRIL 19, 2011

SoundExchange claims on its website that webcaster SWCast.net was shut down when SoundExchange complained to its ISP that the service was not paying royalties for the use of the music played by the site. SWCast was an aggregator of webcast channels created by other individuals, who paid the company - allegedly for the streaming and for the royalties that were due for that streaming.

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Attorney 65

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Finance

Broadcast Law Blog

MAY 8, 2011

Just as webcasters thought that they had their royalty obligations figured out, there comes news that the already complicated world of digital media royalties may well become more complicated. Last week, EMI, which in addition to being a record label is a significant music publishing company, has reportedly decided to withdraw portions of its publishing catalog from ASCAP - which had been licensing the public performance of these songs.

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Broadcast Law Blog

JANUARY 10, 2011

As we have advised before in both 2009 and 2010 , " Super Bowl " is a registered trademark belonging to the NFL, and they will aggressively enforce their trademark rights against any station that attempts to use this term in connection with advertising or promotional matter of any kind, including ticket giveaways, if not specifically authorized by the NFL.

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Broadcast Law Blog

JANUARY 5, 2011

Every year, about this time, I dust off the crystal ball to offer a look at the year ahead to see what Washington has in store for broadcasters. This year, like many in the recent past, Washington will consider issues that could fundamentally affect the broadcast industry - for both radio and TV, and affecting the growing on-line presence of broadcasters.

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Broadcast Law Blog

JUNE 15, 2011

In recent years, FM translators have become more and more important to broadcasters, as they are being used to rebroadcast AM stations and HD-2 channels , giving the programming broadcast on these over-the-air signals new outlets in many markets. However, there have been some bumps in the road to the introduction of these new outlets. These bumps have arisen both from attempts to move these translators significant distances without observing all the obligations of FCC rules and policies, and in

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Paralegal

Broadcast Law Blog

FEBRUARY 8, 2011

The FCC released a Notice of Apparent Liability for Forfeiture today, proposing a $10,000 fine against a public TV station in Los Angeles for requiring an appointment to view the station's public inspection file. This case shows how seriously the FCC takes the requirement of open and unfettered access to a broadcast station's public file. An FCC agent visited the station's main studio twice without identifying himself as an FCC employee.

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 2, 2011

The FCC issued a declaratory ruling this week finding that Anderson Cooper’s new talk show appeared to be a bona fide news interview program exempt from equal opportunities under the FCC’s political broadcasting rules interpreting the mandate of Section 315 of the Communications Act. This ruling is another in a series of rulings by the FCC making clear that virtually any interview-type program on which a candidate appears, that is not administered in a partisan fashion and which is r

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Broadcast Law Blog

JUNE 6, 2011

Is the release of the long-awaited Future of Media Report at hand? Since January 2010 , the FCC has been studying the Future of Media, a study conducted by a Special Advisor to the FCC Chairman who was appointed in November 2009. The study was to provide important research and analysis of how broadcasting and other media are serving the needs of local communities, particularly in light of changes in the media landscape brought about by new technologies.

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Technology 61

Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 29, 2011

The Commission's recent Notice of Proposed Rule Making exploring possible changes to the television retransmission consent rules has now been published in the Federal Register setting the date for Comments as May 27th, with Reply Comments due by June 27. As we wrote about recently ( here ), the FCC has commenced a rule making to consider revising its rules governing the interaction and negotiations between cable operators and broadcasters regarding carriage of local broadcast television stations

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Government 61

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Broadcast Law Blog

DECEMBER 21, 2011

All broadcasters and other EAS participants need to remember to file their reports on whether or not they received the Nationwide EAS Test by December 27. With everyone preparing for the holidays, and with much of the publicity about that test having died down, it may be very easy for some to have forgotten that the test was conducted in early November, and that all stations and other EAS participants have an obligation to file with the FCC by December 27 reports on their experience with the tes

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Broadcast Law Blog

AUGUST 23, 2011

Yesterday, FCC Chairman Genachowski issued a press release stating that the FCC was abolishing the Fairness Doctrine as part of its clearing of its book of 83 obsolete media rules. What should the reaction of broadcasters be now that the Fairness Doctrine has been officially abolished? Probably, a collective yawn. In 1987 - almost 25 years ago - the FCC felt that it could not enforce the doctrine as it was an unconstitutional restriction on the freedom of speech of broadcasters.

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Broadcast Law Blog

JULY 13, 2011

ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) has approved the use of.xxx as a domain (like.com) for the adult entertainment industry. In September, broadcasters and others with registered marks will have an opportunity to reserve their marks defensively in the.xxx domain. While adult-oriented website operators may be interested in reserving spots in the.xxx top level domain (TLD), broadcasters may be just as eager to prevent their call signs and other marks from being used in

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Broadcast Law Blog

JULY 13, 2011

As our colleague Brian Hurh wrote today on our sister blog, www.broadbandlawadvisor.com , the Video Programming Accessibility Advisory Committee has released its Report to the FCC on the closed captioning of IP-video programming as required by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act passed last October. A copy of the report released today is available here.

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Broadcast Law Blog

JUNE 9, 2011

The question has recently arisen as to when underwriting announcements can be aired on noncommercial radio and TV stations. The New York Times recently quoted me on the subject in an article discussing the plans of PBS to experiment with putting underwriting announcements in programming, rather than merely in the breaks between the end of one program and the beginning of the next.

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Statute 60

Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 18, 2011

The FCC's recent item proposing the adoption of video description rules was published in the Federal Register today setting the deadline for Comments in the proceeding as April 18th, with Reply Comments due by May 17th. As we wrote about recently ( here ), the FCC has initiated a rule making proceeding to reinstate its prior video description rules with certain modifications, as required by the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (Act).

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Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 6, 2011

Like " Super Bowl ," "Olympics" and "NASCAR," "March Madness" is also a term that is protected by trademark law, and its unauthorized use in commercials could result in legal liability. But the development of March Madness is a bit more interesting, and you can probably thank Brent Musburger for that. The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) has been using the term "March Madness" to describe its state high school basketball tournament since t

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Broadcast Law Blog

MARCH 4, 2011

Yesterday, the FCC initiated a rule making proceeding to reinstate its prior video description rules with certain modifications, as required by the Twenty-First Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2010 (Act). The proposed rules would require large market broadcast affiliates of the top four national networks and most cable operators and DBS providers to provide programming with audio narrated descriptions of a television program’s key visual elements beginning as soon as

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