WRPI, Rensselaer’s FM radio station, may be forced to shut down its online broadcasting stream as a result of the proposed implementation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act which was passed by Congress in 1998.
The DMCA would impose new licensing fees retroactive to 1998 and content restrictions on Internet broadcasts. It would also require stations to generate detailed reports on each song played online.
“WRPI cannot afford to pay the licensing fees required by the new copyright act and we are certainly unable to provide the information it requires,” said Colin Fredericks, president of WRPI.
As a non-commercial community and student operated radio station, WRPI would be forced to pay about $4,000 in licensing fees to continue its online broadcasting.
Additionally, it would have to implement new software and hardware to catalog statistics such as song title, artist, date, and time of broadcast, and retail album title for each song played online.
WRPI doesn’t have the manpower to operate the cataloging system or money in its budget to purchase the software and hardware, said Fredericks.
Because the DMCA prevents stations from playing more than a certain number of songs from a particular album or artist in a given time period, tribute shows, educational and social programming, and shows that play full albums would either have to be modified or have to be taken off the lineup if the online broadcast is kept.
User interactivity and archiving of any online broadcasts would also be restricted and some mechanism to prevent users from recording the online broadcast would have to be employed. “[Adhering to the act] would be burdensome. [Community and college stations like WRPI] are really falling victim to the commercial industry,” said Jeff Kuhn, a community member who has performed technical work with the station since 1991. The recording organizations are using stations to “do their marketing work for them ... [They’re] using technology to take advantage of [stations].”
The WRPI management only began to understand problems that the DMCA would create in the past few months.
“It went in under the radar of people. It was a shock to me. The recording industry put forth [the DMCA] for anti-piracy [issues], not broadcast [issues],” said Kuhn.
WRPI’s RealAudio server was originally donated by the Rensselaer Alumni Association so alumni could hear RPI hockey games online.
WRPI could choose to only broadcast online for sporting events such as hockey, baseball, and football games and for campus events like Earth Week, but that would be too difficult to schedule, said Fredericks.
The librarian of Congress has until May 21 to accept, reject, or modify the suggestions proposed by the Copyright Office in implementing the DMCA.
“We’re still waiting on this. We would be very unhappy if [the DMCA] went through,” said Fredericks.
A number of college radio stations have already shut down their Internet broadcasts while they await a decision on the DMCA, including those at Clemson University (WSBF), New York University (WNYU), Arkansas Tech University (KXRJ) , Oregon State University (KBVR), Central Michigan University (WMHW), Bellevue Community College(KBCS), University of Pittsburgh(WPTS), Virginia Tech University (WUVT), Swarthmore College (WSRN), and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (WSUW).
The WRPI management has decided not to shut down its online stream unless it becomes forced to do so and is appreciative of the Institute for not recommending that they shut it down.
“[We] didn’t have [any] thoughts of shutting down [before the changes are decided]. The Institute has been very good about it.” said Fredericks. “I wonder if [the legislation] takes advantage of students who don’t have the time to press the issue,” said Kuhn.
