There's a blizzard
of news
articles,
op-eds,
and commentaries
webcasting service Pandora's acquisition of a radio broadcast station. The
focus is on the impact of the purchase on Pandora's prospective payment of
royalty fees to songwriters and composers.
This otherwise
unusual purchase is explained by the compulsory licensed, rate-regulated
context for music service. Pandora is hoping to gain a more favorable regulated
royalty rate for itself by becoming a broadcaster.
Rate regulation
regimes can be especially prone to manipulation, arbitrariness, or arbitrage. The
problematic underpinnings of the current copyright law's forced-sharing and
price-control approach as well as the need for long-term market-based reforms
are things that I have touched on in an FSF
Perspectives paper, "Putting
Music Copyright Policy on a Free Market Footing," and in a blog post,
"Unshackle
Copyrighted Video and Music Content from Compulsory Licensing." It can
be easy to get lost in the complexities of the current system of compulsory licensing
and ratemaking system for music. But in sorting out the thicket, public policy should
ultimately be aimed toward the restoration of a truly free market under the rule
of law.
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