The appeals of last year's Copyright Royalty Board decision on the royalties paid for the use of sound recordings by Internet radio stations continue on, and one recent filing raises interesting questions of whether or not the CRB was properly appointed. Last week, the Department of Justice, which represents the CRB in defending its decision in the Court of Appeals, filed its brief in opposition to the briefs of the webcasters, which we summarized here. The DOJ brief essentially argued that the webcasters' briefs were insufficient to satisfy the requirement for a successful appeal - that the CRB decision was arbitrary and capricious or otherwise contrary to law.

Under the compulsory license for the use of sound recordings - the license which allows Internet radio services to use all legally recorded sound recordings by paying a royalty set by the Copyright Royalty Board - the designated collection agency can, once each year, audit a licensee to assess its compliance with the royalty requirements. Under the law, when the collective decides to audit a company, it must notify the Copyright Royalty Board, who then gives public notice of the fact that an audit is to take place. The Copyright Royalty Board has just announced that SoundExchange has decided to audit Last.FM.

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In the days following Microsoft’s (NASD: MSFT) announcement of its unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo (NASD: YHOO), much of the news focused on the battle between Google and Microsoft to color the other’s motives as anti-competitive. As reports surfaced that Yahoo may try to avoid being acquired by Microsoft by giving control of its search advertising to Google in exchange for a large revenue share (although nothing has made public by either Google or Yahoo on this), Microsoft reportedly began lobbying government officials to block any such deal between the two on antitrust grounds setting the stage for what is likely to be a long and public battle between Google and Microsoft over control of the Internet.

Washington - SoundExchange, the independent entity set up by the major labels to collect and distribute digital music royalties, responded to criticisms from small and large webcasters alike that the royalty rates recently announced by the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) are too high by calling the decision-making process "fair."

*A correction was made to the original version of this story.

Washington - The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board announced on Tuesday that it will consider requests from groups including the Digital Media Association, National Public Radio, Clear Channel Communications and SoundExchange for a rehearing of its recently announced ruling on digital music webcasting royalty rates.

Washington - A group of radio broadcasters including Clear Channel, and the Digital Media Association -- which represents large webcasters like Yahoo, AOL and Live365 -- have joined National Public Radio in submitting challenges to royalty rates for music webcasting set earlier this month by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board (CRB).

Washington - The U.S. Copyright Royalty Board on Friday set new royalty rates for webcasters operating non-interactive radio stations, which will increase annually through 2010 and require Web radio stations to pay for each song streamed to each user.