SONY/ATV PULLS STREAMING RIGHTS

That will directly affect companies like Rhapsody, Napster and MediaNet, with their ability to offer streams now subject to copyright infringement claims.

The move comes in response to the Digital Media Association filing suit yesterdayt with the Copyright Royalty Board, arguing an interactive stream should not be considered a digital phonorecord delivery (DPD). If they lose that ruling, streams would be subject to publishing royalties because they’d have to be licensed for reproduction. If the ruling were in their favor, they would only have to pay for standard performance licenses from ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. If a stream is not a DPD, then digital services would not be required to obtain a reproduction (DPD) license under copyright law.

Many digital services have made deals with Harry Fox since 2001 promising to retroactively pay for interactive streams and limited downloads when final rates were set.

Other major publishers are now expected to follow Sony/ATV's move.

DiMA member companies include AOL, Apple, RealNetworks and Yahoo!