The radio recording service DAR.fm isn’t happy about receiving a cease and desist letter from Univision, which claims that time-shifting radio is a copyright infringement.
DAR.fm’s Michael Robertston says “While recording broadcasted material may be new to radio, it’s not new to society. Nearly 50% of U.S. households have a DVR which records broadcasts.”
In the letter from Univision’s law firm Los Angeles law firm McDermott Will & Emery, attorney Jorge Arciniega states that by allowing for permanent downloads of MP3 recordings by subscribers, the DAR.fm website “is essentially opening the door for users to engage in copyright infringement, since unlimited copies can be made from downloaded MP3 files and then distributed to others.”
According to Univision what it particularly objects to is a new DAR.fm feature that lets users download recorded shows to their mobile devices, as MP3 files. It wants DAR.fm to pull the Univision stations off the site by the close of business today, Oct. 7.
Robertson says he “takes exception” to the Univision claim, stating that all DAR.fm recordings are stored in password-protected storage and automatic downloading for listening later doesn’t lead to copyright infringement.
