Digital radio broadcasts that bring CD-quality sound to the airwaves could lead to unfettered song copying if protections are not put in place, a recording-industry trade group warned on Friday.
Without copy protections, music fans could cherry-pick songs off the air and redistribute them over the Internet, further deepening the copyright woes of record labels, the Recording Industry Association of America said.
U.S. regulators at the Federal Communications Commission should ensure that the broadcast format limits such copying so radio stations don't turn the airwaves into a giant file-sharing network, RIAA officials said.
"A little bit of prudence right now goes a long way," RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol said in a conference call.
Radio stations might resist the RIAA’s plans.
“We want to roll out this technology as quickly as possible and if this is going to delay that, that’s something that’s going to cause consumers and broadcasters a lot of concern,” said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the National Association of Broadcasters.
Digital radio promises to bring CD-quality sound to FM stations and FM-quality sound to the AM band, along with “metadata” like artist and song information. Broadcasters also can use the standard to broadcast several signals at once.
Roughly 300 stations now broadcast digital signals or are in the process of setting them up, according to the FCC.
RIAA officials said digital-radio players could soon allow listeners to record certain songs automatically when they are broadcast, allowing they to build a free library of music they otherwise might pay for and distribute it to millions of others over the Internet.
Players already on the market in Europe, such as Pure Digital’s “The Bug,” allow users to pause and rewind broadcasts and record them digitally.
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., which broadcast digital signals by satellite, do not pose the same risk because they would be hurt by song copying and thus have an incentive to limit it, RIAA officials said.
Under restrictions proposed by the RIAA, listeners would be able to record digital broadcasts for later playback, but would not be able to divide that broadcast up into individual songs. Listeners would also not be able to program their players to record certain songs, or redistribute those recordings over the Internet.
The RIAA plans to submit its proposal to the FCC next Wednesday.
The head of the privately held company that controls the digital-broadcast standard said it would wait until a consensus emerges among radio stations, the recording industry and consumer-electronics makers before enacting any copy-control measures.
“We’re in the business of developing digital radio, we’re not in the business of pushing copyright schemes on people who haven’t agreed to those things,” said iBiquity Digital Corp. CEO Robert Struble.
The RIAA represents the world’s largest record labels, such as Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG’s BMG, EMI Group Plc, Sony Corp.’s Sony Music and Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Gr as Warner Music, Bertelsmann AG’s BMG, EMI Group Plc, Sony Corp.’s Sony Music and Vivendi Universal’s Universal Music Gr oup.