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Webcasting and podcasting are two new fields that have gotten copyright
owners worried about protecting their works. How would you like it, for
example, if you wrote a song that turned out to be loved by millions
yet you didn't make a dime because people either illegally downloaded it
or hooked a recording device to a computer to capture a live stream?
Songwriters want to get paid for use of their work. That's just something
webcasters have to deal with.
Like radio, which pays songwriter and publisher royalties to ASCAP and BMI,
webcasters are expected to do the same if they play songs from either
catalogue. Rules set forth in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998
(DMCA) have shaped twenty-first century licensing for use of copyrighted digital works.
The ASCAP and BMI fees are just for performance of lyrics and melody and
use of the recording is a whole different license through the Recording
Association of America (RIAA).
