We’re exploring adding a webcast piece into our the rVibe service and I think it’s the right way to go. I’m not going to go into too much detail, but suffice it to say that any user (non-subscription) can listen to an embedded webcast on any site where it’s embedded. And that webcast can be in-effect created by any user. And that allows some additional functionality that is the killer-app part. The only question is to what degree it will conform to section 114 for statutory licensing. Now, I am no lawyer, but I think we’ve sorted it out - and yes we will. It just comes down to the degree of “consumer influence” over what is played and the audience for whom it is played. In our case, I believe we’re on safe ground for statutory licensing as long as our business logic conforms to the playlist rules (no artist repeats in a three hour time, etc). That might mean modifying the user generated webcast list, but better that then face the licensing consequence.

Originally published on WordPress on February 15, 2007. Migrated to this blog on May 29, 2025.