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Technology and Development
The following discussion will provide details in relation to technical developments and
ongoing developments in the area of entertainment products specifically related to satellite radio
and its formation of the well-known company Sirius XM radio. Additionally, details relating to
content distribution will be explained and how the formation of Spotify came to be known to the
new generation of online music technology. Other information provided in the discussion will
address the changes and challenges faced by the industry and consumers and how the
developments can overall change the opinions and interests of individuals.
I. Distribution of entertainment product
Satellite radio along with its competitor internet radio have overcame experimental
developments to now service many consumers all over the world with streaming services that
were once imagined as what if’s by technical geniuses in previous years during the introduction
of the world wide web. As the demands of having online or satellite radio becomes greater over
time, many challenges have affected the distribution product in many ways due to legal
requirements, keeping up with costs and updating technical changes to the product’s platform
(ACS, 2014). Many people are involved with the issues surrounding satellite radio, such as board
members who actively take part in discussion panels with service providers and policy makers in
regards to the rules and laws created by the government for radio programming, detailing the
FCC rules and the openness of internet services to allow certain networks accessibility in
connection with online radio access (ACS, 2014).
During the days of satellite radio’s incorporation into technical society, a law was created
to govern its presence that is the satellite act (1988), came into being due to the need to control
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its broadcasting abilities, and related to the transmission of tv programs using dish networking
and other subscribed services to consumers looking for expansion of their services. Licensing
requirements were an added feature to the longevity of satellite radio/tv as long as congress had
full authority to make needed changes to the license agreements created for each satellite
company (IP Watch, 2009). Other laws followed as the years of change in the satellite radio
industry and internet altogether, urged the government leaders to create a new act and bill which
would negatively and positively affect consumers and providers in all. For example, the
performance rights act gave radio programmers fair share against their competitors although the
fees to continuously provide public radio still applies with the exception (resulting from changes
in the US copyright laws) of AM/FM broadcasters in radio (IP Watch, 2009).
The changes to the laws in the U.S. affecting radio and internet have led government
officials to make drastic changes in the area of intellectual property. Marketing strategies are
planned around the creation of the Pro-IP Act, which helped law enforcement and other groups
in law, to control the copyright and IP agenda and provide necessary barriers for trade activities
(IP Watch, 2009). Further information regarding Satellite radio and intellectual property is
detailed in the information outlining the requirements within a music licensing agreement, the
following applied, in reference to the current enactment which tried to orchestrate the rate-setting
standard among Internet radio supporters and satellite and link radio supporters by changing the
rate- setting standard from the willing purchaser/willing vender standard to a changed 801(b)
standard, like what link and satellite radio telecasters at present work under (GPO, 2012). It is
important that this enactment does not endeavor to address the inquiry of whether physical radio
ought to pay execution sovereignty. Also, it is reasonable to say that, all manifestations of
advanced radio, whether satellite, link or Web ought to contend with one another on a level
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playing field, although this is not always the case. The Internet Radio Decency Act enactment
levels the playing field for Internet radio administrations by putting them under the same
business sector base standard used to create rates for other computerized administrations,
counting link and satellite radio. Congress ordered the eminence rate standard for Internet radio
14 years prior when Web radio was scarcely an idea and much sooner than today's unmistakable
Internet radio organizations even existed (GPO, 2012).
II. Content distribution and company
The company to be described is Spotify, who is one of the top producing music
distributors in the world, their goal is to reach as many people with their promotional deals as
often as an individual can benefit from in a single platform. Spotify, which is an online music
administration actively seeks to offer clients the capability to stream sound music records on-
interest from a PC utilizing Spotify's novel exclusive engineering. Spotify offers both an
advertisement upheld, allowed to-the-client model and a membership model. The promotion
upheld model is focused at battling robbery by offering clients an unrivaled client experience,
while adapting authorized substance through publicizing. Spotify urges their clients to exploit its
premium administration which offers clients subscriptions through a month to month
membership expense or through a credit framework (Cloud Front, 2013). Additional information
confirms Spotify’s existence into the digital music world on PC’s, phones and anywhere the
services could be downloaded and used immediately. To date, Spotify was established in April
2006 by serial business visionaries Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. Spotify is fused in
Luxembourg and secretly subsidized by the managers. The name Spotify is a blending the words
SPOT and IDENTIFY. “Spotify helps you spot and distinguish the top picks you overlooked, or
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perhaps didn't even know you had. Our dream is to gather all the world's music and make it
available to everybody” (Cloud Front, 2013).
III. IP challenges and Intellectual Property related to Satellite Radio (Sirius) & Spotify
Many rules and acts have come along the way as the existence of intellectual property
begin to take on greater issues affecting the availability of content music through satellite radio
and content distribution services such as Spotify. The understanding of law in the IP area can
help an individual understand the ups/downs for having these providers around for the long haul
as the advancement of technology consistently moves forward into the ever changing future.
Many of the rules and laws applied have started out with creation of acts and other legislative
material prepared by the congress in care of intellectual property agendas, beginning with the
following, The "Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights Act [51][52] (formerly known as
the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act) passed
Congress in 2008 and was marked into law by the President in October of that year" (Baugher,
2014). The law expands both the civil and the criminal punishments for copyright and trademark
encroachment. Disciplines incorporate the seizing of pilfered duplicates as well as seizure of the
records archiving the assembling, deal or receipt of pilfered things, and additionally any gadget
whereupon the duplicates are put away -long ago, just the encroaching things and things used to
make the encroaching things could be seized (Baugher, 2014).
Another type of law included, the PIRATE Act, which was revived and reformulated into
an alternate law, known as the Intellectual Property Enforcement Act (S.3325) and was
reintroduced in the Senate in 2007. The same DOJ common claim procurement was joined into a
House adaptation of this law, known as the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for
Intellectual Property (PRO-IP) Act (H.r. 4279). These two bills were in the end accommodated
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with one another and consolidated into a solitary bundle lastly passed both places of Congress in
2008[458]. Before entry, the authority name of the bill returned to its unique House title of PRO-
IP (Baugher, 2014). Satellite radio was effected by these laws due to the abilities it gave its
customers to send/receive and save content music that was broadcasted over the air and saved to
the receiving end of the satellite receiving box. The option to record instant music using satellite
devices in order for satellite radio to work, as caused an upstream of problems resulting from the
constant changes in laws affecting the availability of music, thus leaving al music content under
strict ruling form the congress and their government peers. As for Spotify music distribution
problems, although the company is not noted specifically under the generic title “content
distributor”, their ability to limit what a consumer can save to their computer and hard drive has
probably kept them in business longer then what was estimated during the original business plans
of each content distributor. The problems associate with content distribution providers, starts
when congress decides to enact laws in favor of the consumers who associate their lifestyle with
music, for example, the creation of the “Digital Choice and Freedom Act” (2002), granted
protective rights to consumers who desired to make copies of music to their own satisfaction
using whatever tools were necessary to get it done (Baugher, 2014).
IV. Consumer and industry input and changes
Buyer enter and progressions happen when people choose to voice their notions on issues
that matter in the region of licensed innovation and appropriation even before congress and other
government authorities settle on choices without the info of a vote. In the event that buyers and
commercial ventures cooperate to make new thoughts and methods for utilizing copyrighted
material or other ensured material short the defiance to law, then it is accepted that less
perplexity will exist among the two sides by lessening the separation in considerations,
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objectives, exertions and general delight in substance choice that can't be effectively created
through straightforward overnight innovations.
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References
ACS (2014). ACS and Future of Music Coalition Presented Music and Intellectual Property
Policy Day. Retrieved from http://www.acslaw.org/node/4666
Cloud Front (2013). Spotify Background Information. Retrieved from
https://d2us6zencw9qvn.cloudfront.net/wp/u/spotify-background-information.pdf
GPO (2012). Music Licensing Part One: Legislation In The 112TH Congress. Retrieved from
http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CHRG-112hhrg77042/html/CHRG-112hhrg77042.htm
How Stuff Works (2014). How Satellite Radio Works. Retrieved from
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/satellite-radio.htm
IP Watch (2009). IP Policy Issues May See Progress in a Changed US Landscape this Year.
Retrieved from http://www.ip-watch.org/2009/02/23/ip-policy-issues-may-see-progress-
in-a-changed-us-landscape-this-year/
Baugher, Joseph F. (2014). Issues in American Copyright Law and Practice. Retrieved from
http://www.joebaugher.com/copyright.htm
