Artists demand that Nederland.fm pay for embedding radio streams

The Sena foundation, representing the interests of music makers, is starting proceedings on the merits against Nederland.fm to force the site to purchase a license for radio portals. The foundation also tried this in the past, but stopped the attempt after a decision by the European Court.

Administrator Jim Souren of Nederland.fm says it is ‘a mystery’ to him why the Sena is starting proceedings on the merits against the site. “The only thing we can conclude is that the foundation believes that neighboring law offers more room for interpretation than copyright law. We think differently about that.” Neighboring rights are closely related to copyrights but protect the ‘efforts and achievements’ of artists and producers.

The Sena was not yet able to provide a substantive response to questions about the proceedings on the merits. The announcement coincides with the start of a petition from the Sena to “give musicians and actors a fair share of the proceeds from the internet and streaming.” It is not known whether the proceedings on the merits should be seen in the light of this campaign called ‘Fair internet for performers’.

In 2011, copyright organization Buma/Stemra started sending invoices for embedding radio streams. The organization believed that the embedding constituted a new disclosure. Initially, the Court of Justice of The Hague ruled in favor of Buma/Stemra and even radio sites would have to purchase a license for linking to streams, after which the Sena also started demanding license fees for embedding music.

In early 2014, however, the European Court ruled that sites may freely link to copyrighted material if it had already been published on the internet with the permission of the rightholder. It was clear from the wording of the ruling that this also applied to the embedding of audio or video streams, for example. Buma/Stemra and Sena subsequently decided to withdraw their license requirement.

Souren maintains his position that this is not a new disclosure. “Nederland.fm has no music on its own servers and sends its visitors directly to the original source or the music stream on the server of the radio station in question itself. The site works the same as the selection menu at a car radio, where you can also tune in on the airwaves of your favorite radio station.”

Both the Sena and Nederland.fm would like the case to be forwarded to the European Court as soon as possible, Souren said.

Update, Tuesday 06-10, 11.30: In a response, Sena says: “The ruling of the European Court of Justice in the Svensson/Retriever case of early 2014 concerns copyright and not neighboring law. Moreover, the originally Swedish case concerned news items. In Sena’s opinion The Svensson/Retriever case does not provide sufficient clarity about the scope of neighboring rights and how Sena should deal with radio portals.” The foundation says it wants to create clarity with the proceedings on the merits that have now been started about when music will or will not be made public in accordance with the rules of neighboring law.