Legal Issues

Let me make something perfectly clear before proceeding any further. This book does not, in any manner, condone the use of copyrighted audio files for use on the Internet. If you plan on broadcasting songs or music to which you have no legal right or written consent or permission, all broadcasts should be limited to local machines. Better yet, do not do anything that may jeopardize your ability to stream or that might be construed as illegal.

The examples used throughout this book are based almost entirely on streaming live audio produced by KSL Radio and Television. KSL is the sole owner of the generated content. Because this is talk radio, there is very little interaction with any of the recording industries. Also, when citing static music files, I base my examples on files extracted off music CDs I own. I subsequently stream these music files for internal personal use.

According to the latest RIAA proposals, most commercial broadcast stations also need to carefully track their listenership and pay the necessary royalties and fees based on these statistics. Icecast lends itself well to meetings these requirements. Chapter 12 examines tracking all user connections and monitoring the time connected and files to which users listened.