BAM! The future of....

The 1998 House Resolution 2281 included a provision called the Vessel Hull Design Protection Act. It was intended to fill a loophole in copyright law after a court decision struck down some the legal wording regarding the rights of boat and water craft designers. The Act basically extends sui generis protection for the designs by stating there is little difference between the function of a boat’s hull and its shape. The new provision have greatly influenced the canoe blueprints I’ve drafted and plan to build as soon as I get a large enough backyard, several felled birch trees and a dozen deer pelts.

The VHDPA was part of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, for some reason, which also includes some gobbledygook about digital copyright and music and web radio. I don’t pretend to understand that in the same way I appreciate boat hull legislation. But according to the WSJ, it means WOXY is about to go off the air. Again.

"Regular broadcasters pay royalties to composers and songwriters. But a DMCA rule calls for Web radio stations to also pay a fee to performers. The government set the fee for small radio stations at 10% to 12% of revenue or 7% of expenses, whichever was higher. Combined with other costs of streaming music over the Internet, that meant the cost of running WOXY began exceeding its revenue."

Everyone gets paid. Yeah. No one gets to listen. Boo.