BY PAUL MALONEY
Independent record label Artemis Records, home to artists like Graham Nash, Warren Zevon, the Josh Joplin Group, Rickie Lee Jones, and Steve Earle, has announced it will waive webcasting royalty fees for their music for one year.

The waiver contract is available for viewing and downloading from the label's website here.

"In allowing free use of our catalog at this early stage we hope to stimulate the Internet radio format," said Artemis Chairman and CEO Danny Goldberg (pictured at left) in a press release. Goldberg called the waiver for webcasting "an incredibly worthy marketing and promotional tool."

Goldberg told Reuters (here), "We're a small company with a lot of music that doesn't get played on commercial radio. I appreciate the Webcaster. In terms of the future, the diversity they offer is valuable to a label like ours. I wanted to make a gesture of support."

Goldberg is the former Chairman and CEO of Mercury Records, Warner Brothers Records, and former President of Atlantic Records.

Artemis artists also include Marah, Boston, Jay Farrar, Mississippi North All Stars, and the Reverend Horton Heat.

Artemis is not a member of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the industry organization representing the major labels and dozens of independents that has been at the forefront of the struggle with webcasters over royalty fees.

However, according to Reuters, the RIAA has no objection to Artemis' decision. A spokesman said, "From the beginning, we have always argued that the copyright holder should have control over how their music is used."

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... I think Mr. Goldberg is making a smart move, though maybe not such a great one for webcasters. He ends up looking like the good guy, doesn't give too much away (actually, he doesn't permanently give up anything), and he and his artists just may end up reaping the benefits of strong support on Internet radio (I would imagine some Net radio programmers are taking a good look at the Artemis roster right now). While most webcasters we've heard from seem to embrace the Artemis move, others are stressing some caution in regards to the terms of the waiver contract (as there should be for any contract), and we would agree. For instance, webcasters should note that the one-year waiver period begins August 1 2002. In other words, this contract would not relieve Internet radio of its "retroactive" obligations to the record company. Here's more. This is directly from the contract: "8. Company shall maintain a comprehensive database of all public performances of the Masters transmitted hereunder and all ephemeral recordings of the Masters created hereunder. Such information, along with aggregate information regarding users of the Site, shall be provided to Artemis upon request (but in no event more than one time per week). The parties acknowledge that all such information is the joint property of the parties hereto." So, Artemis expects: (1) "census reporting" (as opposed to "sampling") for recordkeeping, if we're to take the word "comprehensive" literally; (2) a record of ephemeral recordings, a request of record labels that the Librarian of Congress seems to have pretty strongly rejected; (3) user information, which even the RIAA has dropped as a demand; and (4) joint ownership of the valuable database of listener habits you build with your business. This is probably a good business move for Artemis, but it seems as if webcasters perhaps should beware. (On the other hand, this may merely be an example of a legal department getting carried away with their work and going beyond the wishes of their client). Please feel free to use the "Feedback" form below to share your thoughts and comments. -- PM ...

From CNet News.com: "The Recording Industry Association of America's Web site was unreachable over the weekend due to a denial-of-service attack.

"The apparently deliberate overload rendered the RIAA.org site unavailable for portions of four days and came after the group endorsed legislation to allow copyright holders to disrupt peer-to-peer networks.

"The malicious flood started on Friday and did not involve any intrusion into the RIAA's internal network, a representative for the trade association said on Monday afternoon. Nobody has claimed credit for the denial-of-service attack, which ended at 2 a.m. PDT on Monday.

"'Don't they have something better to do during the summer than hack our site?' asked the RIAA representative, who asked not to be identified. 'Perhaps it at least took 10 minutes away from stealing music.'..

"On Thursday, the RIAA endorsed a bill written by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., that would authorize copyright holders to begin 'blocking, diverting or otherwise impairing' peer-to-peer networks."

Read this entire article by Declan McCullagh at CNet here. RAIN's coverage of the Berman bill is here.

On Friday, while looking for official public comment from the record industry on the Inslee bill (see RAIN here), we were unable to connect to both the RIAA and SoundExchange sites.