Aereo ruling boosts calls for radio reform

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) -- ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property -- is working on a bill to, among other things, require radio stations to pay musicians for the songs they play, and he said the Aereo ruling may help his cause.

The decision “highlights that the court … and broadcasters support copyright protection,” said Rep Nadler. Requiring Aereo to pay to play broadcast content and requiring radio stations to pay to play songs is “the same principle,” he continued. “It sort of a contradictory position for them to hold.” MusicFIRST -- a coalition of music industry groups representing musicians, record labels and others -- also used the Aereo ruling to call for music licensing reforms. Broadcasters “commit the exact sin that they condemn in Aereo -- they use music as the foundation of their programming, yet refuse to pay the artists and labels who created the music a cent,” musicFIRST executive director Ted Kalo said. “As momentum builds in Congress to close the AM/FM performance loophole once and for all, [the National Association of Broadcasters] and its members may find their win over Aereo read back to them as Exhibit A in the case for fair pay for all creators across the board.” But broadcasters say the issues shouldn’t be conflated.