Peer2peer and Community Radio

cyrus the virus

Is it legal for a Community Radio Station to download copyrighted content (audio files only) from a peer2peer program such as Limewire, BearShare, BitTorrent, Kazaa? i.e Can a Community Radio Station download copyrighted audio files from the internet?

Does the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland Community Radio licence allow this? If so do you know if the have to broadcast the downloaded copyrighted content (audio files only)?

See where I am coming from?

Just Curious.

Thank You Very Much.

aidan_walsh

IANAL, but I would imagine that in order to stay within the confines of the license (I haven't seen the license, btw) you would have to get the tracks from offical sources.

grumpytrousers

cyrus the virus wrote:

Is it legal for a Community Radio Station to download copyrighted content (audio files only) from a peer2peer program such as Limewire, BearShare, BitTorrent, Kazaa? i.e Can a Community Radio Station download copyrighted audio files from the internet?

Does the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland Community Radio licence allow this? If so do you know if the have to broadcast the downloaded copyrighted content (audio files only)?

See where I am coming from?

Just Curious.

Thank You Very Much.

(*usual this is not legal advice, your mileage may vary disclaimer*)

Put quite simply by using peer to peer programs you're breaking the law. they pretty much all work on the notino that you download stuff from others, and simultaneously you upload stuff to other users. Even if it's just a 'chunk' of the track you're currently downloading.

At that point you're breaching copyright and breaking the law.

Will the BCI find out? Highly unlikely. Should you do it? No. As Aidan says, it might or might not be a term of your license, but the fact that you can't afford to have commercially available tunes on your station doesn't mean you're still entitled to play them. Why not go mad and get a few 'free' tracks from some unsigned bands off myspace or something, and thereby give them a bit of exposure they'd otherwise not get?

if the punters want to hear the latest Girls Aloud single, they can go to the usual stations...community radio is meant to be different, innit? That's *why* you got the license in the first place!

superdudeman007

Apparentky if you download and then pay the royalties to IMRO it's OK for anyone.

But if you think about it iTunes is probably a lot cheaper.

grumpytrousers

Buying from Itunes doesn't buy you a license to publicly broadcast stuff you bought there. you pay 99c to listen to the song yourself...

monkeyfudge

Community radio stations only have to pay a set fee to IMRO each year. This cuts out the need to keep a log of every track played.

I can't see how anyone would be able to go about proving if you'd actually purchased the audio that you play.

Chillwithcian

monkeyfudge wrote:

Community radio stations only have to pay a set fee to IMRO each year. This cuts out the need to keep a log of every track played.

Yes that is the case for the majority of community stations

seamus

Technically, to download a track is legal, but to use the track is illegal.

Essentially by using the track which you have obtained, you are "publishing" it without consent. Whether you are listening to it on an mp3 player, or playing it on a community radio station is irrelevant, they're both forms of publishing.

I assume stations that pay the IMRO fee sign some sort of contract. If so, does this contract specifically say where/how you should obtain copies of the music, or does it just specify what your fee entitles you to do?

Duffman

seamus wrote:

Technically, to download a track is legal, but to use the track is illegal.

You might still be held to be making a copy of a protected work by downloading the track. You're potentially breaching the copyright that the record company has in the recording (rather than the copyright the artist has in the actual song).

The law is kind of up in the air in this area in the UK and Ireland but it's definitely not safe to rely on the notion that downloading isn't an actionable activity.

The solution here is to clear it with IMRO first. They're the collecting agency, if they give you permission then nobody else is going to complain.

monkeyfudge

I believe that iPods are even technically illegal in Ireland as in order to use them you have to make a copy of the original track.

grumpytrousers

yup. you get something from iTunes it's kosher. converting, however, that CD of Brothers in Arms to mp3 and transferring is technically illegal - just like copying it onto tape (remember those) for the car is. There is an element of practicality in this and personal use such that no company will get medivel on your ass for doing mp3 conversions for your own mp3 player though...