I was wondering...

I am currently talking to my host, about hosting a SHOUTCAST server on my VPS, and he tells me, there have been a lot of complaints from MPAA about these things to the company..

I was wondering, if it's standard, I have to follow the rules, or else I get fired.. or if there are complaints about this to other companies.


So, I want to know if any other companies have been getting complaints about RADIO STATIONS on their servers, etc..

I only think it's odd, because I know people who host shoutcast servers, and nothing bad has happened to them.


Thanks.

Shoutcast is a bandwidth killer and you should really consider running it on a dedicated server. It is not really fair to the other users of a shared server.

Also, I'm not sure why the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) would care if you run a radio station.

I think your meant the RIAA (see riaa.org) and yes they care very much about internet radio stations because royalties must be collected on all copyrighted songs played. The specific prices of which are still in the process of being finalized, but essentially they have prohibited many internet radio stations from continuing their services recently. You should check with the site above to understand the tracking that needs to be done and to understand when and how payments need to be sent.

The RIAA have clamped down a lot recently and a lot of internet radio has disappeared, they are now making genuine large audience net radio stations buy licences for broadcasting.

If you were just planning on running it for a few listeners >100 then i doubt they would even know you were broadcasting.

Irvinghosting: it's a VPS. So they probably already shared out the resources via some software that limits what resources you can suck out of it. However b/w is a real issue. It depends on how many users you want to support and the bps you want to stream at. 128bp/s mp3s will required about 18kbytes/s per listener. so 100 users will suck up quite a bit of b/w constantly at 1.8MB/s.

b/w pipe needs to be really good to support constant throughput at that rate, not to mention the b/w usage you will rack up monthly. If not, your listeners will buffer like crazy, and you will still be stuck with quite a bill.

Where RIAA is concerned, as long as you are fairly small and inconspicuous (or is just a private station), it is unlikely you will get into any trouble.

If you pay ASCAP, BMI, and any other fees, you'll be fine. If you make more that $6 million per year, then you have to pay per song roalties.

If you make more that $6 million per year, then you have to pay per song roalties.

Are you sure about that number? The reason I ask is we had to suspend all streaming of our radio stations. We already pay the fees for our on-air (radio stations). On top of that, we were to pay additional fees to stream our same signal on the net, including music. We stopped the music and started streaming talk programs :(


Although this doesn't really involve streaming stations, a little side note. Agencies that create commercials also require additional payment for streaming their spots. We had to stop streaming all commercial spots that were not produced in-house.


As for the RIAA, they are really cracking down. In Annapolis at the US Naval Academy, they confiscated something like 100 computers from midshipmen that were believed to have illegally downloaded MP3's. These guys could be court marshalled just for possessing them....this all at the urging of the RIAA

On top of that, we were to pay additional fees to stream our same signal on the net, including music. We stopped the music and started streaming talk programs
My mistake, the bill that had the $6 million revenue figure in it was struck down by congress, here's the latest info:
http://www.kurthanson.com/archive/news/111502/index.asp

- Matt

Thank you for the clarification....Had me excited for a minute ;)

I hate the riaa , as for midshipmen getting a court marshall , i highly doubt it , i dont know of any laws in the "uniform code of military justice" that would say file sharing is illegal . Im wondering who served these men with a federal search warrant , and why . I dont see the military concerned with court marshalling or even giving a captains mask to hard working servicemen over downloading music . If the riaa had its way , everytime your friend got into your car , you played your favorite cd , they would want to make your friend pay royalities for hearing it . All in all , riaa is not educated enough to know they are fighting a lost cause , file sharing will never end , ever , its already to late to exercise authority . As far as hosting a radio station , i say give the people music , if you want to , go for it ...i wish you luck

I too doubt that they would court marshal anyone over it, however, the USNA is considering this theft, and for that there is punishment. We'll see how it pans out.

Whether it is a lost cause or not to stop it...that is irrelevant. If people do it, and the RIAA goes after them, it will cost money for whoever they go after...is it worth the financial hassle?

thats a good point , i know the riaa is super loaded , but not loaded enough to go after every person in the world with mp3s on there hard drive , again , a lost battle . As far as the navy thing , i too served my country (USCG), i was willing to give my life so that companies like the riaa can exsist , how dare they .

This is the link for those interested

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/11/25/music.navy.reut/index.html

"As for the RIAA, they are really cracking down. In Annapolis at the US Naval Academy, they confiscated something like 100 computers from midshipmen that were believed to have illegally downloaded MP3's. These guys could be court marshalled just for possessing them....this all at the urging of the RIAA"

Yep, my brother goes there, and called all paranoid about it. To be honest, they are just trying to light a fire under their ass. Basically, the bandwidth provider for Bancroft hall balked because so many mid-ships were downloading movies/mp3's and basically reported it to the criminal investigation branch of the Navy (I don't know what that is), and they turned around and shut off their network for awhile, and threatened to go through all the server logs and see who did what....which I found quite cute..."Yeah, we're gonna go through millions of items on this log and figure out who had what IP (They are dynamic) at what time and pin you down!"...

...and they won't get court marshalled, they are threatening to keep them there over Thanksgiving. That would suck (especially cos I got a 6 hour drive tomorrow to go pick my bro up @ the O'Hare).

I know about shoutcast, how much bandwidth is uses, and all that crap.

You don't need to pay royalties to the bands, if you aren't making any money. Atleast that is the case, in real life, sponsored radio stations. (KPFT In Houston, Texas).

I'm just wondering about that kind of stuff.

Originally posted by myg-
I know about shoutcast, how much bandwidth is uses, and all that crap.

You don't need to pay royalties to the bands, if you aren't making any money. Atleast that is the case, in real life, sponsored radio stations. (KPFT In Houston, Texas).

I'm just wondering about that kind of stuff.

The answer is yes, no matter how little money you make, you have to pay. That is what is killing so many small internet radio stations. But the new senate bill just passed. I believe it simply specifies that webcasters and RIAA need to come to some agreement in one month. Hopefully they will come up with a percentage of revenue type of royalty.

See here for more details:
http://www.saveinternetradio.org/

i host a radio station, had no complaints yet....