Streaming music

[Sarah36 Islay]

Is it true the Landowner can get a fine  for example -  If dj streaming music downloaded from youtube and its showning titles such as She loves you Beatles lyrics, rather than She love you - The Beatles.

[Rolig Loon]

A fine from whom?  Certainly not Linden Lab.  A copyright holder can of course enforce the law and require you to pay royalties or force LL to take down the stream with a DCMA complaint, or whatever.  Lawyers can do almost anything, and defending against them can be expensive.  Not being a lawyer myself, I can only guess at such things.  As far as I am aware, however, there's no widespread campaign in SL to crack down on DJs.

[Alwin Alcott]

the landlord is totally safe... but the one that broadcasts the stream CAN get fined for streaming illegal content by their national institute for copyrights, broadcast rights and music rights.

I say CAN, because this only is happening very rarely, but it's possible... and it are really serious amounts that can add up to hundreds of thousends.

 

Making your stream legal... and for sure when you have a growing fanbase, can be a very pricey thing.. i know here in the Netherlands, a radiostation, thats what you are when you stream, can cost up to nearly 1000 euro ( nearly the same value in dollars)

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Short answer: NO

Slightly longer answer: Feel free to listen to any music source on your own parcel, You can even have friends over to have a listen as well while you all chat or even dance.

The Answer You don't want to wade through: [Just kidding I have posted this in detail in the Forums several times] Basically, the bottom line is that there are no music police looking to see where the music you stream on your own Parcels on the Grid is coming from or whether the songs are annotated correctly. BMI/ASCAP/SCSAC have never expended any manpower in SL to catch Music streaming activities because they do not have any basis or authority to police this in the SecondLife Product Offering.

The only one at risk is Linden Research based on fair use law as legislated in the United States. If Linden Lab is ever called to task for the Music Streaming happening on its GRID you can bet Music Streaming will end as a feature.

P.S. This all said, stealing music is tacky so buy buy buy what you like to listen to. That grants you the right to play it on devices you own and onin your SL Parcel because your PC then plays it like a media device using the IP/Port URL Address.

 

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[Alwin Alcott]

quote [P.S. This all said, stealing music is tacky so buy buy buy what you like to listen to. That grants you the right to play it on devices you own and onin your SL Parcel because your PC then plays it like a media device using the IP/Port URL Address.]

 

this isn't true, at least not here where i live. With broadcasting you make it public, and that's not allowed. You buy the music for home use. Officially you aren't even allowed to let it sound on a party with your neighbours when it's not at your home.. Sending to your parcel is not home use because everybody can log in on the adress you use , it is broadcasting/making a public performance. That makes it illegal.

I kow very well this is only the letter of the law, but the rights offices here announced to go active search for illegal broadcasting and hosting. Even a schoolproject close by they forced to stop or pay. But if you start broadcasting, you hve to know there is a risk.

[Monti Messmer]

Hi, well KarenMichelle they do, trust me, i payed once because one song i played wasn´t legal. Means this song is banned in my country.

It was a big thing with police searching my home bla bla and expensive too, for me.

So, yes in some countries, not all, authorities check online radios AND even virtual world streams.

Monti

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Oh yes i understand. I know Germany has an evil enforcement arm as well as a few other EU members. I'm just covering the mess regarding Royalty Collection here in the USA. I've barged my way into a few freinds legal businesses to have them help me try to pin down specifics on the non stated policy here regarding Virtual Venues.

I've been actively researching this for 18 months in regards to the US Exposure.

[KarenMichelle Lane]

Darn it...My post was fouled out because of my links posted in it I'll clean it up and use a pic of the links to applicable reference sources...

 

[KarenMichelle Lane]

NOTE: This information applys to those of you in the United States Only...

 

Actually is is not illegal in any legislated or ordinance form in virtually all of the United States. There is an explicit grant of license to play any purchased performance with a further understanding that a public performance license is required for hosting venues in real life. In other countries there mat be actually ordinances about this. What is allowed is enforcement of public play licensing requirements via monitoring by licensed organizations representing BMI/ASCAP/SCSAC as the licensed Royalty distribution agencies at very specifically defined venues. These include the standard terrestrial venues such as stores, clubs, bars, restaurants, malls, wedding facilities, etc. Terrestrial Radio play is monitored by another organization with a similar responsibility to document plays and to distribute licensing payments and subsequent distributions to the copyright holders fo the music.

 

Terrestrial Radio Stations that also broadcast digitally via the Internet have additional licensing requirements.

 

Casual broadcasting on a private IP address/port does not automatically make this a public broadcast. Further, listening to your own stream via your Internet enabled media devices [iP Radio, Android Phone using any IP Radio application like Lumiya ] is allowed within the existing vague fair-play language of existing language by omission of specifically. If you make that broadcast available to the Internet at large then you are in clear violation of Internet Radio Station broadcasting industry standards.

 

Technically and legally on a civil basis, the owner of the venue known as The SecondLife GRID, where various streams may be "hinted" on sub-divided parcels, is Linden Lab and they would be the entity that is exposed to the royalty collection and enforcement requirements. This is completely unsettled law!

 

Your parcel may be a public place per-se but it is not included in the monitoring procedures of any the Royally Collecting organizations. A Virtual Club on a Virtual Grid also falls out of this perview as no language in existing law exposes it to the enforcement aspects.

 

This said,

 

1) you should always legally own the music you play.

 

2) If you [Like Me] allow your programming to be publicly accessed by anyone on the Internet as a part of your own Internet Broadcasting for-profit or non-profit business then you need to get an annual license available for your music / performance royalty requirements available from several licensing agencies. I pay $675 in 2016 to an organization that collects for all 3 of the big copyright organizations in order to broadcast my music catalog on my Internet Station.

 

3) Casually playing music on your parcel is and has not been identified as a performance licensing vector in current copyright licensing language. This does not mean that it won't in the future. Further the existing exemption language may exclude these virtual venues based on virtual physical size. It's all a huge mess language-wise.

 

Here is some additional reading for those interested...

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P.S. As a side note I'd love to see a reasonable and easy to implement Royalty Collection system for Virtual Grids & Individual Virtual Venues. [The DJs are NOT liable for this royalty per current law] But it would be wonderful to have an easy way for a Venue Owner to be able to make a "micro" payment for these performances at venues with 65 or less listeners at them. have Linden Lab collect them and use these funds to offset the blanket licensing of all music performances in their GRID.