Mark Lam

Live365 Asks Court to Examine Copyright Royalty Board

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on September 1, 2009 - 8:45am.

Washington - Online radio service Live365 announced on Tuesday that it has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to halt any further webcasting royalty rate-setting proceedings before the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), until the issue of whether the judges on the board were appointed in violation of the Constitution's separation of powers is resolved. The company points to recent opinions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, including one that stated that the CRB "exercises expansive executive authority ... unsupervised by the Librarian of Congress or by any other Executive Branch official," adding that the "statutory structure raises a serious Constitutional issue."