Washington - National Public Radio (NPR) on Monday submitted a memorandum to the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), which again stated its request for a public rehearing of the CRB's recent ruling on royalties webcasters must pay to stream music online.

"In this filing, we are asking the Copyright Royalty Board judges for a public rehearing where we can provide supplemental testimony and oral argument of its motion, on the public record," said Andi Sporkin, NPR's vice president of communications.

"We are also asking the CRB and the recording industry to remember public radio's non-commercial status and our public service mission, as other royalty groups and decisions have done for years."

The memo cites the "unworkability in application of the rate structure…for NPR," adding that "both the aggregate tuning hour and per-performance metrics…cannot reasonably be applied or implemented across the NPR system."

Meanwhie, SoundExchange -- the entity set up by the record industry to collect webcast royalties -- called on the CRB to reject webcasters' motions for rehearing.

"Just because you don't like the outcome of a fairly played game doesn't mean you should ask the referee to order the game replayed," said SoundExchange executive director John Simson.

"Yes, Internet radio is important to the music community, but that doesn't mean that artists and record labels don't deserve fair compensation for their works."

Related Links:
http://tinyurl.com/322gaj (SoundExchange statement)

http://tinyurl.com/2rsd2c (DMW previous coverage)