Dear Friends,
I usually post my radio shows (broadcast on Saturday nights) on Sunday mornings, posting here as well as both my radio show's Facebook page, and on my personal Facebook page. I'm afraid I can't post last night's show at this time - a copyright claim has been made, and access to my file has been blocked by Soundcloud, the service I pay to make my shows available for web streaming.
The claim is for a track I did not use. I did use a short (about 2 minutes?) excerpt from a 1938 broadcast with the same artist, which to the best of my knowledge is in the public domain. (Broadcasts from that era were not usually copyrighted, the few that were have copyrights that have expired.)
The radio station pays all of it's royalty fees for using recorded music to ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC.
I have decided to file a protest, which required my agreeing to indemnify Soundcloud against legal fees. I realize that they are only trying to protect themselves, but that's required in order to dispute the claim. Soundcloud can terminate my account, and I can now be sued by the company making the claim, and Soundcloud if the claimant decides to bring suit against them.
Needless to say, I am not passing anyone else's work off as my own.
I have no idea how this will turn out, nor any idea how long this process may take. In the last 7 days, of all of the various shows I have made available online, my files have been played a total of 8 times.
Just think, I could become a convicted felon for excerpting 2 minutes or so of a 1938 radio broadcast. What a wonderful world we live in.
Pax Vobisum.
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