SoftTV spinoff IceRadio flirts with litigation over streaming copyright songs offshore

An Ottawa-based online radio station could face legal challenges similar to ICraveTV.com unless it can prove that copyrighted songs on its site are staying within Canada’s borders, according to an Internet law expert. IceRadio.com Inc, a recent spinoff from parent company SoftTV.net, has a catalog of over 25,000 tunes available for on-demand streaming, including those from the most popular artists. The site explicitly states that the music is for Canadian ears only, although the service appears to rely on the honour system rather than a firewall to keep non-Canadians out. Information recently pulled from SoftTV’s site indicates that the parent company started IceRadio as a provider of corporate radio, though the material is accessible to anyone who claims to be listening from a Canadian location. According to IceRadio’s terms of agreement, "IceRadio makes this web site…and the musical content provided on the Site available to users in Canada for their personal entertainment." It goes on to say that, "IceRadio has provided this Site solely for the use of individuals present in Canada and the access and/or play of the Musical Content transmitted through this site is not permitted to locations outside of Canada." The site warns that non-Canadian users could face criminal and civil punishments under federal and provincial law. Before registering, new users are asked to indicate whether they are using a computer or terminal located in Canada by pushing one of two buttons: "In Canada" or "Not in Canada." Officials at IceRadio wouldn’t discuss the company’s business and licensing model when contacted by Canadian NEW MEDIA. However, a simple search using popular search engines turned up links to IceRadio from sites registered in France, the U.K., U.S. and others. Michael Geist, an Internet law expert at the University of Ottawa, says relying on a single button press to protect itself could invite legal actions from American copyright holders concerned about a lack of effective border controls. "I think the key point would be that a court, if they were to face this particular issue, would go to the actual or almost implied knowledge that the party would have about who is accessing their site," he explains. "The ability to rely strictly on a click-in-Canada type button is limited by that. If they are taking additional steps to identify who their user base is, beyond just the click-in-Canada button, then they may have a plausible argument." He says, however, that if the company is only relying on a single button press, when it has good reason to believe others are accessing the site from off-shore, then many of the same points raised against ICraveTV could apply. ICraveTV encountered significant opposition to its business from U.S.-based TV broadcasters when it relied on methods such as the entry of Canadian long-distance codes to prevent non-Canadians from entering the site. The validity of that and other methods were never tested as ICrave caved to U.S. demands and shut down before a civil action against the company could go to court (CNM, March 20/00). No deals with CRIA, SOCANCopyright collectives in Canada appear to know little of IceRadio’s operations. Representatives from the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) say the company hasn’t yet negotiated any deals with their organizations. SOCAN’s legal counsel, Paul Spurgeon, says Ice has not approached them or offered to escrow tariff money pending a Federal Court of Canada decision on Tariff 22 later this year (CNM April 20/00). CRIA’s Brian Robertson says he’s heard of IceRadio, but that the company hasn’t contacted its umbrella licensing arm, the Audio/Video Licencing Agency. He says it’s his understanding that IceRadio is negotiating one-on-one directly with the major labels. The company’s ownership is just as up-in-the-air as its legal status. Originally started as a private-label radio offering by SoftTV (formerly Ingenius Engineering), a spokesperson told CNM that the site has been recently "re-launched" as a separate entity using SoftTV software to power the music. SoftTV’s Scott Abraham was serving as the Canadian sales agent for the site, though information to that effect was pulled from the site after being contacted by this newsletter. Stephen Abraham, CEO of IceRadio, continues to use a SoftTV email address, and the company’s headquarters remains at SoftTV’s Ottawa Rosemount St. address. IceRadio has indicated that it will publicly discuss the company early this fall.

SoftTV spinoff IceRadio flirts with litigation over streaming copyright songs offshore

News | 08/23/2001 4:00 am EDT

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