By ~ j~ fty~jjQ, ZDNet News March 14, 1999 6:55 PM PT

The financial well-being of many Internet radio stations is under negotiation. Under
the Digital Millennium Copyright Act signed into law by President ainton last year, online broadcasters will have to pay licensing fees for Webcasting copyrighted music -- but the amount of those fees is still being negotiated. Once the fee stwcture is worked out, fees will be retroactive to October 1998, when the law was passed in Congress, meaning a potentially significant finandal blow to some broadcasters, according to Mike Powers, author of the RealTime Internet Radio Guide. As a result of the uncertainty, “existing Internet radio stations are responding by looking to additional ways to bring in money with advertising or donations,” he
said. “Many of those who haven’t yet started broadcasting online are waiting until the licensing fees have been determined.” The law implements the provisions of two International treaties adopted by the World Intellectual Property Organization In 1996. Software makers, movie studios, book publishers and other aeators of copyrighted worlcs pushed hard for the legislation, fearing that as their products increasingly became available on the Internet in digital form, pirates and criminals would easily be able to make and sell illegal copies. The law creates criminal penalties for anyone who orcumvents high-tedi anti-piracy protections, svch as encryption, used to block illegal copying. It also forbids the manufacture, import, sale or distribution of devices or services used for drcumvention.