[asterisk-users] Royalty for On Hold Music ?

[Stephen Bosch]

Steve Kennedy wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 31, 2007 at 05:22:20PM -0400, Jon Pounder wrote:
> 
>> Quoting John Millican <jmillican at sentinelcommunications.com>:
>> there are plenty of radio stations with internet feeds of their audio,  
>> piping that in would not change any coverage area since anyone with  
>> internet could listen anywhere already, you're only providing that to  
>> the listener through a phone handset instead of a computer speaker,  
>> which amounts to just another audio device controlled by an internet  
>> connected computer.
> 
> No it's not, you're rebroadcasting and that would incur a difference
> license (if legal at all).
> 
>> What if the radio is on in the background when I make a call ? is that  
>> rebroadcasting ? kind of gets blurry on the definitions there.
> 
> That's not as you're listening to it and not "trying" to rebroadcast.

Well, this is approaching the absurd.

Do you know how many Meridian systems have radios plugged into them for
"on-hold" background sound? Nobody pays royalties on those.

There are the "rules" and then there are the practical realities.

-Stephen-