Music royalty talks consider cell phone mandate

Aug 18, 2010 By JOELLE TESSLER , AP Technology Writer

(AP) -- A proposed settlement to a long-running dispute over music royalties could include a federal mandate that all new cell phones and other wireless devices contain an FM radio tuner.

The proposal is now under discussion by radio broadcasters, recording labels and recording artists. Although it is far from final - and would still need Congressional approval - the prospect that the government could dictate a key design decision for such a ubiquitous consumer device has alarmed electronics manufacturers and wireless providers.

Gary Shapiro, head of the Consumers Electronics Association, says Congress should reject "a back-room deal on how an should be designed. We think consumers should choose and companies should choose - not the ."

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dutchman
5 / 5 (1) Aug 19, 2010
I'm still perplexed as to what the addition of a tuner would solve.

BTW: All these organizations (ASCAP, RIAA) primarily represent corporate interests (like Sony Music and such) Although they CLAIM to represent the artists.
(OK, I'll get off my soap-box now.)
frajo
not rated yet Aug 20, 2010
I'm still perplexed as to what the addition of a tuner would solve.
It's about licenses and taxes. The possession of tuners is taxable in some countries. Broadcasting music for tuners makes you a licensee obliged to pay licenses.

The music industry these days is giving a textbook example of an inevitably dialectic historical development. The more they try to feed their greed the more they invoke their doom.

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