[grc] question about FCC/DMCA rules

[Bill Simmon]

Hi everyone,

Recently a couple of things have come up at our station that have caused us
to examine how strictly we are adhering to FCC and DMCA rules. We are
pretty new — only licensed and on the air since November — and we are still
trying to find a posture with respect to how strict we are about what we
understand to be violations of the rules in shows that we run. The
following examples are both regarding some content distributed through
Pacifica's Audioport system.

1. A DJ who distributes through Audioport but also does a live version of
his show in our studio did an Aretha Franklin tribute following her death,
which was two hours of Aretha songs. Our understanding of DMCA "performance
compliment" rules led us to believe you can't play more than four tracks
from a single artist in a given show if your station streams on the
internet (which ours does). We told the DJ this and he pushed back, saying
that several stream-only stations ran the show (he is syndicated fairly
widely). We told him he could not do his Aretha tribute on our air.

2. We began running a three-hour weekly music show on Sunday mornings
recently that we download from Audioport. A station staff person was
listening and pointed out that there is a promo spot in it that offers a
"record club" subscription (via Patreon) that helps to support the creation
of the show. This appears to be a pretty clear violation of our LPFM
license, which we understand does not allow for any third party fundraising
without a specific FCC waiver. I know the show is syndicated fairly widely,
though maybe other community stations have licenses that differ from LPFM
that allow for this sort of promotion?

My question is: are we misreading these rules, or are other stations just
not enforcing them? And if others don't enforce them, does that mean we
shouldn't be so particular about enforcing them either? How persnickety
should we be about sweating these details?

Thanks in advance for any guidance.

Bill

--
Bill Simmon
Director of Media Services
Vermont Community Access Media

Station Coordinator
WBTV-LP

208 Flynn Avenue #2G
Burlington, VT 05401
802.651.9692

vermontcam.org
993wbtv.org