| Archive for SLMC Second Life® Music Community Forum |
| Doubledown Tandino |
BMI in SL - "Pay the Piper or Face the Music?" (viBMI in SL - "Pay the Piper or Face the Music?" by Justine Babii of SLNNVia Second Life News Network Pay the piper or face the music? by Justine Babii November 07, 2007 SUNSET BEACH - If you own a venue or club in real life that hosts DJs or bands, then you are probably familiar with Broadcast Music, Inc. or BMI. BMI is an organization that has arranged to handle licensing fees for over 350,000 creators of music, the songwriters, composers and publishers of more than 6.5 million musical works. If you own a club or similar venue in real life then, you pay fees to BMI. Those fees gives your DJs the right to play the copyrighted music and bands to play cover songs for those compositions that BMI represents. If you own a club or other venue in Second Life, you might not be familiar with BMI yet, but there’s an excellent chance you will be in the near future. READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT: http://www.slnn.com/index.php/article/about/bmi-in-sl |
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| luketemplar |
So... if BMI want a percentage of the negative USD$400+ revenue I generate each month - does that mean they pay me? | ||
| ticious |
I'm all for that Luke, but somehow, I doubt that's the way BMI would view it 
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| Distilled1 |
Luke thats how I see it too!
the laws are so fine here, as #1 when you go to pay the piper(s) you have to say is there food served? dancing? how many patrons daily and it adds it all up, well in the internet and SL you may have a one person there dancing one day and 38 the next. do they eat? NO do they really dance? (i don't know I cant see in their living room. |
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| Fox_Reinsch |
IndieSpectrum Radio is royalty free no BMI or ASCAP issues!That's right! If you play IndieSpectrum Radio you will not have to worry about being sued by ASCAP or BMI! Not only that but you will be supporting live music and the musicians in SL instead of the record companies.ALL the music on IndieSpectrum Radio is the original works of SL artists that have provided the music for IndieSpectrum play with the certification that they own the right to do that without affiliation with record companies. So why not support SL musicians and not worry about going to court. Just play http://81.169.149.182:8016 Fox Reinsch http://www.indiespectrum.com
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| Silas Scarborough |
The article is just quoting old news (e.g. net radio rates from months and months ago) and there's nothing to indicate any RIAA or BMI goon squad will be doing anything today, tomorrow, or any other time.
The DJs Take Cover flag starts flying every six months to a year but nothing has happened as a result of any of these alarms and there's nothing to indicate anything will happen as a result of this one. It's an easy button to push and this article doesn't offer anything new to push it any harder. For something that really is changing, check out the almost total abandonment of Digital Rights Management for any online music. |
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| richdesoto |
Interestingly enough, I am a BMI member artist. And I don't worry nor do I care that SL stations and venues play any of my music. I'm not expecting payment or any type of reporting from these plays.
I signed up with BMI years and years ago. My kids song CD does generate a bit of revenue, as the songs are sometimes used in videos, DVDs and on some television shows... I don't see them doing much with the SL streams or internet radio (unless its a VERY big service). They're more concerned with making sure that bars, grocery stores and elevators make their payments on time. 
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| Jura Shepherd |
That is probably true but a lot of stuff that's flying under the radar now may get more attention because the American Bar Association has decided to take an interest in SL. The basic gist of their first meeting in SL was:"wow! jackpot!". I dunno, even if they slither off to the next shiny object, it's still probably not a bad idea for all of us to be a little more litigious minded. There's also this recent stuff concerning terrestrial radio: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-848 In a nutshell, it proposes that the fees that internet radio pay also be applied to broadcast radio. There are differing opinions on that of course but in my mind I see it as potentially making stations more adverse to taking risk on the little guys. |
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| Nad |
Fascinating. Do you have a reference where you read this information?. A URL? Thank you. |
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| Jura Shepherd |
Aye, http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn/2009/04/aba.html ...and again, it's true that any reasonable copyright holder isn't going to be overly concerned with the relatively low numbers in sl . It's not them, it's their hired guns that will want to appear hawkish and justify fees etc. Not saying it's right/wrong or anything, it's just how stuff goes. In sl, we rely on each other to be reasonable. It's like an unspoken thing that works ironically well. Folks lookin in from the outside won't be the same. |
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| DjaiSkjellerup |
All those avatar lawyers in one place and no one took the oppportunity to cage them 
Seriously, that is a really interesting development on IP I had not been aware of. The phrase performers was specifically mentioned and the link to the request for the IP owners of the Dune franchise to remove all references is proof that some IP owners will make waves and that Linden will be party to enforcing IP ownership if they have to. In this instance renaming items and groups has made it easy to comply but complying with the wishes of the IP owners of performed materials will be more difficult to skate round I think. |