The podcast patent troll speaks (to Planet Money)

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Paul Riismandel

Ce n'est pas un podcastIn March we told you about the SHIELD Act which was introduced into Congress to help reform patent laws, particularly targeting patent owners who are “non-practicing,” meaning that they aren’t actually making use of their patents.

One such “non-practicing” patent owner is Jim Logan, whose company Personal Audio is suing podcasters like Adam Corolla, claiming that they own licensing fees based upon a patent he filed in 1996. In April CBS and NBC were added to the list of defendants.

NPR’s Planet Money podcast actually interviewed Logan for its May 31 episode. But first hosts Robert Smith and Zoe Chace listen to the alleged original podcasts from the 1990s, which were just magazine articles read on cassette tapes. His magazines on tape idea failed, but his patent was approved

It’s illuminating to hear Logan and his attorney defend the patent even though he had nothing to do with the design of technologies like iPods which made podcasting possible, and is not a podcaster himself. At the end of the piece, Chace asks Logan and his lawyer if she and Planet Money are breaking the law for producing a podcast without licensing the patent. Predictably, they refuse to answer.

Chace also interviews podcaster Marc Maron, who is arguably a small fish compared to NBC and CBS. Having received a threatening letter from Personal Audio, along with a copy of the patent, Maron says, “he appears to have patented a diagram.”

The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced last week a stepped up campaign “to save podcasting.” The EFF plans to challenge the validity of the original 1996 patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office with a two-pronged attack.

First, the EFF plans to argue that the supposed invention in the patent was too obvious to merit a patent. Secondly, the EFF hopes to show that Logan and Personal Audio didn’t invent anything new or unique by finding publication of similar or identical ideas for podcasting or distributing episodes over the internet from before Oct. 2, 1996.

The overall issue of patent trolling has caught the attention of the White House. On Tuesday a task force on high-tech patent issues was announced, along with executive actions “to help bring about greater transparency to the patent system and level the playing field for inventors.” Included in these actions are outreach efforts to help end-users of patented technologies–both businesses and consumers–know their rights when threatened with patent litigation.

A shorter version of the Planet Money podcast piece is part of this week’s episode of This American Life. It takes a in-depth look at the issue of patent trolling, exploring an East Texas town which is home to many patent trolls, including a company called Intellectual Ventures which is accused of being one of the biggest trolls around.

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Posted in podcasting, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Andrew Phillips: the education of a KPFA general manager

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Matthew Lasar

Andrew Phillips

Andrew Phillips at the NFCB [photo: Matthew Lasar]

I attended the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference on Friday. No sooner did I wander into the main drag of the San Francisco event than I spotted KPFA’s beleaguered General Manager, Andrew Leslie Phillips, staffing a table.

“Matthew!” Phillips cheerfully exclaimed after I introduced myself. “Got a lot of respect for what you do. Sit down and let’s talk.”

The enthusiasm, the compliments, the banter, the Melbourne accent . . . it’s pretty easy to be charmed by this guy—except if you are his boss, it seems. According to Phillips, the Pacifica Foundation, which owns Berkeley, California based KPFA, has put him on “paid administrative leave.” His ultimate fate, I tentatively divine from various unreliable sources, will be determined by an investigation of what could be a few or perhaps over a hundred “complaints”. This all depends on which self-appointed authority you quote. Initial reports [Facebook login] claimed he was fired (I emailed Pacifica Executive Director Summer Reese for the details, but received no reply).  Allegations of “racism” are also in the air (they often are at Pacifica). Facts about those charges, however, remain just as scarce.

And so, having interviewed Phillips at length, I’m going to explore a different take on his hiatus—that it is really about his attempts to repair KPFA’s badly damaged morning schedule. Some background is in order: Continue reading →

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The hazards of slogans and logos in public radio donor announcements

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Matthew Lasar

National Federation of Community Broadcasters conferenceI spent the morning at the National Federation of Community Broadcasters conference here in San Francisco. First stop: a panel on the dos-and-don’ts of underwriting acknowledgements. Expert attorney Michael Berg spoke on the subject, and offered a very nice advisory handout on slogans and logos, from which I draw the following wisdom.

Bottom line: the Federal Communications Commission’s rules on underwriting announcements seek to protect the noncommercial quality of noncommercial educational (NCE) broadcasting. Thus such spots can “identify” and “describe” the underwriter and its products, but they can’t “promote” them. The FCC expects NCE stations to make “good faith judgements” in these regards.

So legal details include the donor’s name, contact information, brands and names of its products and services, and “historical information about the donor’s operations (such as how long they’ve been in business).” But data about pricing, “calls to action,” “inducements to buy,” or language comparing the donor’s products to the rest of the market is out of bounds. Continue reading →

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“Rats!” Canadian listeners debate commercials on Radio 2 and Espace Musique

Posted on May 29, 2013 by Matthew Lasar
rats

lenkfamilypetstore.com

As requested by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada’s broadcast regulator has approved the placement of advertising spots on Radio 2 and Espace Musique radio. The latter service describes itself “the largest directory of French music internet radio in Canada.”

Judging by the comments on the CBC news website notice, many listeners are anything but happy about the decision.

“Beyond the superior quality broadcast, including interesting hosts and a widely varied music selection, the absence of advertising is what made Radio 2 and Espace Musique a pleasure to listen to,” one comment observes. “With the cacaphony of advertisers now plaguing yet another radio station, I will be plugging in my MP3 player and kissing live radio goodbye.”

Ditto says another reader: “oh wonderful……just add it to the pile of advertising we are exposed to from every other source already.” And: “Rats!” succinctly declares a third.

Here’s the gist of the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission decision: Continue reading →

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All Access brings on-demand Spotify competitor to the Googleverse

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Paul Riismandel

Google Play All Access logoGoogle introduced its entry into the on-demand music streaming market at its recent developer conference Google I/O. Sitting atop its existing Google Play media store, the awkwardly named Google Play All Access provides Spotify-like listening to a large music library, along with the ability to build playlists or tune in to artist-based radio stations.

Unlike many other Google services, All Access carries a fee of $9.99 a month without ads, with a limited $7.99 monthly rate available to customers who sign up now. A 30-day free trial is also available, which I signed up for so that I could audition the service this week. This single rate gives full access to the service on mobile devices as well as the desktop browser. By comparison Spotify’s ad free unlimited service is $4.99 a month, or $9.99 a month for mobile access.

Anyone who has used a service like Spotify, Rdio or Rhapsody will find All Access familiar. On a personal computer it functions through your browser–unlike Spotify–or through an app on an Android device. Although Google has not released an iOS app, an unofficial app is already available in the iTunes store.

At first listen I found the sound quality to be quite good. I’m presuming that All Access serves up the same 320 kbps MP3 files that can be purchased from the Play store. This is a higher bitrate and quality than available with a free Spotify account, but roughly equivalent to the quality heard with a paid Spotify account. However, aside from the free 30-day trial, Google does not offer an ad-supported free version like Spotify does.

Presumably because Google has been able to strike slightly different deals with music labels, I’ve found some slight differences between the library of music found in All Access compared to Spotify, but the overall coverage is about the same. While Google also sells MP3s in its play store, not every artist or album available for sale is also represented in the All Access streaming library.

Like Spotify, Google’s All Access offers radio streams that pick tracks based upon a seed artist or genre. In my experience I still think Pandora is the standard bearer in terms of serving up a wider variety of consonant artists and songs based upon your initial selections.

Google All Access Radio QueueBut one thing I like about the All Access approach to radio is that once you select a station it shows you the queue of about 20 upcoming tracks, giving you an idea of what artists and songs are next. You can even rearrange or remove tracks from the queue. Google can offer this additional level of control because All Access is an on-demand service, with different contracts and royalties than Pandora, which is statutorily limited in the user control it may offer without having to strike individual deals with record labels. This also means that Pandora offers a deeper library of music, but without the instant playability of All Access, Spotify, Rdio, Rhapsody and MOG.

The All Access user interface is a little less intuitive than Spotify’s and other services’. Like many other Google services it is clean if indistinctive. On several occasions it took me some searching to navigate back and forth. In particular, I haven’t quite figured out the direct URL for the All Access service itself. The only reliable way in I’ve found is to go to the Google Play homepage and click on the banner ad offering up an All Access trial, and then clicking on “Try free for 30 days” button on that next page. It’s the same route I used to sign up in the first place. But if I’m already logged in with my Google account, I’m then routed to the All Access interface.

In the crowded on demand music service field there’s not a lot to differentiate All Access from competitors like Spotify or Rdio. I suppose there’s an advantage for someone already invested in the Google Play universe, since Google offers free cloud storage and streaming of 20,000 songs alongside unlimited storage for any music purchased from the Play store. This seems particularly useful for Android smartphone users who can then listen to their personal cloud library alongside All Access music, playlists and radio through a single app.

However, for someone who isn’t already invested in the Google Play universe, or who doesn’t have an Android smartphone, I don’t see any strong argument for choosing All Access over another service. In particular, I don’t really see a reason why a paid Spotify or Rhapsody user should switch, unless she wants to lock in the $7.99 introductory rate and save a couple of bucks a month, at the cost of losing playlists and stations saved in the previous service.

My guess is that Google sees plenty of room for growth in the on demand music market, with the opportunity to entice many new customers by virtue of the company’s ubiquity. There’s plenty of speculation that it’s just a matter of time before Apple and Amazon jump in with their own on demand services to complement their much more prominent online music stores.

It will be entertaining to see if any company offers up a true Spotify-killer, or a feature that is particularly new or innovative. In the meantime I’m not ready to hand over my monthly fee to anyone just yet.

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Posted in Internet radio, mobile, music, product review | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

“Elite Woodstock”: a history of Goddard’s 1970 Alternative Media Conference

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Matthew Lasar

Community radio pioneer Larry Yurdin has posted a YouTube account of the Alternative Media Conference held at Goddard College in 1970.

“Many of the key players in the early days of non-commercial radio were there,” Yurdin notes, “as well as most of the pioneers of commercial FM rock radio.”

The historic gathering of perhaps as many as 1,700 people took place “less than a year after Woodstock,” Yurdin continues, “and a month and a half after the shootings at Kent State.” In fact, Peter Wolf of the J. Geils Band described the event as an “elite Woodstock.” Yurdin had been involved with free form radio since its inception in 1963, working with Bob Fass at WBAI-FM in New York, and subsequently at KMPX and KSAN in San Francisco. While teaching a course at Goddard on alternative media, he proposed to his students that they run the conference as a class project. Continue reading →

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Wasting energy? “Erratic” radio gives you wrong frequency on purpose

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Matthew Lasar

An "erratic" radio.

[www.johan.redstrom.se]

I am reading Evgeny Morozov’s diverting book To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism. The conclusion mentions a variety of machines that act dysfunctionally in some way, but for a purpose—to alert the user that s/he is wasting energy. Among the theorized gizmos that Morozov cites is an “erratic radio,” described by two Swedish designers:

The Erratic Radio is a re-designed radio that ‘listens’ not only to normal radio frequencies but also to those around the 50Hz band – frequencies emitted by active electronic appliances. As a reaction to increasing energy consumption, the functional behavior of the radio becomes erratic and unpredictable, thus conceptually relating to the unpredictable, uncontrollable, and intangible effects of increasing energy consumption.

Morozov thinks out loud about the utility of this strange product: “Imagine hungry radio listeners bringing the radio set into the kitchen to grab some food without missing their favorite show,” he writes. “As they move around the kitchen, the show gets increasingly difficult to hear, as the sound reflects the strength of the electric magnetic field in the the current location.”

Most radios don’t consume that much energy, but the point here is to raise awareness about the costs of the typical array of devices we deploy. As designers Anders Ernevi, Samuel Palm, and Johan Redström elaborate:

As you sit at your office, you switch on the radio and tune in the preferred station. Listening to the music for a while, you realize you need to turn on the light. Starting to turn on a series of desk lamps, the radio gets increasingly noisy as it shifts away from the selected frequency. Only by turning the lights off again, returning to the original state, will the radio work properly again….

Erratic gadgetsThe trio posit a whole array of “erratic” gadgets designed to challenge the very “distant” sense most consumers have regarding skyrocketing energy use, including erratic television sets, erratic toasters, and erratic blenders. Yet more on the radio: Continue reading →

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FCC announces waivers for tornado relief fundraising on non-comm stations

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Paul Riismandel

FCC LogoTuesday the FCC announced procedures for obtaining waivers to permit non-commercial stations to raise money on-air for Moore, Oklahoma tornado relief efforts. Although the Commission has yet to approve rules for non-commercial stations to do on-air fundraising for third-parties, the agency has granted waivers in response to significant natural disasters. Without a waiver it is against FCC rules for non-commercial stations to use airtime to fundraise for any organization except the licensee.

The Commission has already received and granted one waiver for tornado relief. Waivers may be granted for specific fundraising programs, or for “limited station appeals which generally do not exceed several days.”

Last year the FCC proposed letting non-comms dedicate up to 88 hours a year without having to request a waiver. In comments submitted to this proceeding organizations like National Public Radio and the University Station Alliance urged the Commission not to lift the ban, arguing that it might jeopardize listener relationships or cause stations to be deluged with airtime requests from charities. Religious broadcasters, on the other hand, were more supportive of the idea.

Radio stations that want to request a waiver should email Peter Doyle
(peter.doyle@fcc.gov) and Michael Wagner (michael.wagner@fcc.gov) and provide the details of the fundraising activity, including:

a. the nature of the fundraising effort;

b. the proposed duration of the fundraising effort;

c. the organization(s) to which funds will be donated; and

d. whether the fundraiser will be part of the licensee’s regularly scheduled
pledge drive or fundraising effort.

Previously:

Is Radio Shirking its Public Service Duty During Disasters?

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Posted in emergencies, FCC | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Delving into Family Radio’s Finances Two Years after Judgment Day

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Jennifer Waits
Truck in Family Radio Parking Lot

Truck in Family Radio Parking Lot in May, 2011 (Photo: J. Waits)

Today marks the 2nd anniversary of Family Radio‘s failed Judgment Day/Rapture. It was a surreal few weeks leading up to May 21, 2011, with the Christian radio network’s founder Harold Camping doing daily call-in talk radio shows in order to spread the word about the impending rapture.

After the non-events on May 21 (Camping had predicted rolling earthquakes beginning at 6pm local time all over the world), Camping eventually retreated from the business of predicting the end of the world. He suffered a stroke in summer 2011 and has had far less of a presence over the network’s radio waves. Since that time, Family Radio has sold off some valuable radio properties (including WKDN near Philadelphia, WFME in Newark, WFTI in Florida, and WFSI in Maryland) and according to an article written by investigative reporter Matthias Gafni, there are signs that the network is struggling financially.

In his piece for the Contra Costa Times last week, Gafni reveals some interesting details about the massive Christian radio network. According to the article, Family Radio’s net assets and cash on hand have dropped and the network “took out a $30 million bridge loan to keep operating…” while waiting for proceeds from station sales. Gafni writes:

“Former and current insiders allege the situation may be even worse than it appears, claiming donations have dropped almost 70 percent since the Rapture prediction proved incorrect, leading to numerous layoffs of longtime Family Radio staff members. Those insiders say the nonprofit mishandled the sales of the stations, reaping far less than they were worth, and is on the hook for millions of dollars to devotees who have loaned them money over the years.”

The article includes other juicy tidbits, including details about a plan to have skywriters post Judgment Day messages over major cities in May, 2011. Apparently the planes were cancelled at the last minute as a cost-saving measure (surprising for a company that thought the world was ending anyway).

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Is Radio Shirking its Public Service Duty During Disasters?

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Jennifer Waits
Oklahoma tornado

Can you rely on your local radio station during a disaster

The horrific devastation in Oklahoma following yesterday’s tornado reminds me once again about the importance of terrestrial radio during disasters. Today, as I read through tornado preparedness literature, it was clear that radio communication is vital during and after severe weather events. A safety publication (PDF) from University of Oklahoma not only recommends that everyone own a battery-powered AM/FM radio in order to not only monitor weather warnings, but to also receive updates following a tornado.

I’m sure there have been some radio heroes during the storms of the past few weeks, but, sadly, there are probably instances of radio stations that were unable to provide local updates because they did not have live DJs or because they were simply unwilling or unable to handle disasters. As we’ve discussed before, fewer and fewer radio stations have a truly local presence, with many opting to air syndicated programs or automated music. Radio Survivor reader and radio veteran Bill Lundun recently wrote in to express his sadness over this state of affairs.  His comment, posted to my story about Jon Bernhardt’s 8-hour shift during the lock-down following the Boston marathon bombing, is timely in light of the events of the past 24-hours in Oklahoma. Lundun writes:

“First, I want to give credit to WMBR’s Jon Bernhardt for staying on the air 8 hours during Boston’s lockdown. This is what radio is supposed to do. It is what it used to do. Kudos Jon.

That brings me to my second comment, which is how far radio has descended as a medium that we would even note an 8 hour airshift. During emergencies, at least twice in my career, my co-workers and I were on-air well in excess of 14 hours. You couldn’t have kicked us out of the studio, or off the street in those circumstances, because our community was depending on us.

Radio is in a very unique position to respond when local emergencies occur. We are first responders as much as fire, or police when our communities need information affecting citizen’s health and safety. Don’t forget our license requires us to act in the public interest, but beyond that, we in radio should be helping our neighbors and community when it counts the most because we CAN.

Admittedly, I’m old school, but stories like this irk me because Jon’s broadcasting ethic seems to be a rare standard today, when it should be an expectation. It’s a sad statement on the industry.”

Do your local radio stations provide your community with important information in times of crisis? Can you think of instances where local DJs have presented breaking news and safety information over the air? I was pleasantly surprised last September when I heard live news coverage about wild fires on Ft. Bragg, California commercial radio station KOZT The Coast. Is this a rare occurrence or can you think of other examples? And if you are in Oklahoma this week, who were your radio heroes?

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