UK Radio Plunges Deeper Into Podcasting

"Chrysalis to push podcasting" announces this Times headline.

Chief Executive Richard Huntingford said that Chrysalis "was keen to exploit further its key radio brands through the launch of internet services, such as podcasting. The group, which already offers a subscription podcasting service for LBC, priced at £2 a month, is planning further online services on its other radio websites. Chrysalis will exploit podcasting for its key radio brands such as Galaxy, Heart and LBC."

National Consumer Council Copyright Poll

Chris Williams at The Register reports on the National Consumer Council (NCC) commissioned poll on copyright. Fifty-nine per cent of respondents thought copying their own CDs was perfectly legal, and 55 per cent said they have done so.

In a blow to Sir Cliff Richard's campaign to extend the copyright (now expiring) in his 1950s recordings, the NCC also sniped at industry moves to push for an extension on the rule which states that copyright lapses on sound recordings after 50 years. Submission author Jill Johnstone said: "Current terms already provide exessive protection of intellectual property rights at a cost to consumers."

Podcast Day 2006

Podcastday 2006 is a conference on 24th of May in Cologne, Germany and the organizers are asking podcasters to send "cover art" to publicise their podcasts at the event.

Send an image (max 800×600) to nicole.simon at podcastday2006.com

Redrafted Broadcast Treaty Threatens Podcasters

This post by Jen at Britcaster, sent by Glyn Wintle at http://openrightsgroup.org regarding DRM and the newly redrafted Broadcast Treaty:

"The Broadcast Treaty allows people who transmit content to assert a 50-year monopoly called a Broadcast Right over its copying, retransmission, and so on, even if there's no copyright, or a license from the copyright owner letting you copy the content. The "fair use" exceptions for the Broadcast Right are totally different from the rights for copyright. DRM used to protect Broadcast Rights is illegal to break. That means that if your podcast is hosted by someone other than you, your Creative Commons license is invalid -- they can prohibit your listeners from copying, transcoding, or passing on your podcast. It means that if you download audio from the net -- including other podcasts - and include excerpts in your own podcast, either relying on fair dealing or Creative Commons licenses, you're no longer legally in the clear.

If you operate a service that aggregates, indexes, translates, subtitles, or makes other transformative use of podcasts, you're no longer in the clear. If your podcast relies on search-engines to index it so others can find it, you're screwed.

Glyn"

UK Podcasters Association Opens Doors

The first national membership organisation for UK podcasters, the UK Podcasters Association, has opened its doors for membership.

While podcaster forums are debating the style of the website and the details of terms and conditions, UKPA Secretary Mark Crook reports a steady flow of applications. "It's like having a pair of nice new shoes," he said yesterday, "Which look great but need walking in. The more paths we follow, the more comfortable they will become."

This historic event was covered in New Media Age. There is a podcast interview here by Hugh Fraser from ID3 magazine.

We Media Global Forum

Large, well-funded, high-powered discussions by media corporations are nothing new, but the frequency of such events around internet-based citizen media is growing, as is their scale. We Media is responsible for Global Forum 2006 a two day shindig hosted by the BBC and Reuters, with attendees from the UN, Google, MSN, Al Jazeera, the controller of BBC1, and actor Richard Dreyfuss.

An interesting fringe meeting looks like the closest your average podcaster is likely to get.

Guest speakers: Dr Chris Yapp, Head of Public Sector Innovation, Microsoft, Suw Charman, Executive Director, Open Rights Group, Ben Metcalfe (benmetcalfe.com / backstage.bbc.co.uk), and Michael Tippett, founder of nowpublic.com.

Listen to the unedited, 67 minute recording here.

Further comments on the meeting here.