looks interesting!
Cant we try and talk to habbo, and just ask to sell VIP for a bit to make the funds :D
Lol at the bit about £200 for just 10 listeners an hour.. :P
Thoughts?
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looks interesting!
Cant we try and talk to habbo, and just ask to sell VIP for a bit to make the funds :D
Lol at the bit about £200 for just 10 listeners an hour.. :P
Thoughts?
It could run into many thousands and even then VIP wouldn't rescue it.
I've probably over-looked something but the PPL only applies in the UK I thought? The site owner lives outside the UK, the site is hosted in the USA and it's a universal domain name so I can't see how anyone could prosecute.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordy
You are half correct!
On the PPL website they do not have every country signed up to it.
Countrys not listed (Some of them)
Switzeland
USA
Then you could try places like Andorra and Koria :D
Habbo radios have been going for a long time, so why now are people getting involved with licensing etc?
Habbo seem to be doing a lot at the moment to put fan sites down, removing vip etc, and now this? How do they think teenagers who are running websites, advertising their brand, are going to afford such amounts? It's ridiculous.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Antony
It would appear sulake are not behind this.
However I would love to know why we are being attacked now.
PPL though is who you broadcast to and who is the broadcaster. Now the thing is the main target is UK listeners and also 80 - 90% of habbox DJ's are from UK.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordy
This is why some sites you will see restrict access for UK citizens so that they dont have to pay this.
Hayd has got a point there. Most people in the Habbox community are British and preety much most of the DJs are aswell... I don't think they can prosecute...Quote:
Originally Posted by Hayd93
PPL are idiots and should do their research, server is in the us costs don't apply.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewish Bear
Agreed.
Alhough i originally thought you were saying 'people are idiots' as is users ion here LOL :D
I agree with this, if the site is hosted outside of the UK, even if Habbox is a UK Offical site, they shouldn't have to pay the cost if the site is hosted outside the UK.
I don't know why these people have decided to get involved now after god knows how long Habbo Radio's have been running!!
Regardless if Sulake are behind it or not, what I was saying was, why now? Habbo has been running for coming up to 10 years, which is how long fansites have been going for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dom C
When I used to play Habbo back in 04 / 05 / 06 - HabboHut was owned and ran by Sulake Staff - I believe the site was ran on servers paid for by Sulake too? If that's the case, surely they should know something about licencing, or have they done what other people have been saying, and been exempt from it due to being hosted in the USA? :rolleyes:
It's extremely silly.
Even if the servers are hosted in the US I'm sure you have to pay for a license there also.
Sulake have though about getting music in rooms instead of trax.Quote:
Originally Posted by Antony
This means having radios will stop people,purchasing asongs.
Just out of interest, is the fee a one-off thing or an annual fee? Makes very little difference to me but would like to know how much we're likely to extorted for :P
In terms of "foreign server, no fees" I'm fairly sure that would mean no UK access, which cuts down on DJs and listeners by a pretty chunky majority.
To my eyes the bigger issue is actually DJs using illegally acquired tracks - the amount in fines that either they or Habbox would be liable to (not sure who'd bear the brunt of that one) if caught far exceeds £200 I'm sure.
Very true but like you said, with out UK listeners and DJs the radio isn't much. With out illegally acquired tracks I think that the radio might not be much once again.Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingJesus
Illegal downloading DJs should be dealt with the usual way illegal downloaders are.
I think its an annual fee :(Quote:
Originally Posted by FlyingJesus
It's nothing to do with Habbo, however the donations system is set up, so there we go :).
I'm amazed they've started tackling this issue. In the UK, radios do have to pay for licenses. I think Habbox deserve a reward for going license free for so long to be honest :P
Also, isn't the radio hosted on a server which isn't in the UK? Although I guess that isn't enough to make it a non-UK internet radio... Is there even away around this without paying loads, even though you should? It does seem like a shame to close down the radio station, even though Habbo are not behind it for a change.
I always assumed Habbox payed some sort of license lmao. If 200.00 is 10 listeners then why have people like HFFM said they only need 200.00 :S. I know they dont get as much listeners as Habbox but it's sometimes in the hundreds?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dom C
I think you may find habbo are infact doing its fansites a favour, If PPL has got fansites on the radar, habbo will have most likely warned them/told them that this is the problem, and persuaded ppl to let them deal with it.
Or
Habbo could be getting a cut from the licensing fees
I'm wondering this... did PPL actually contact Sulake to raise awareness of this issue? Or was it the case Sulake went hunting for another element of control to bring down the batch of Habbo fansites? I'm sure Habbo USA have their own radio? Perhaps they want to implement one on the UK website and this is their way of getting the brand out. Because quite frankly give me one to reason to why VIP was removed from fansites? It broke no laws, do Sulake see it as a threat towards their income or something? I'm totally confused.
I hope he's right.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jewish Bear
I don't see how it should matter if DJs are from the UK and listeners are, it still doesn't effect where the hosting is.
Hopefully not that reason, if they think fansite VIP was cutting into the amount of profit they were making, then they're a rediculously bad company, because they have no evidence to back up such claims.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jongo
Either way you look at this licensing issue though, Habbo do seem to of done fansites a favour. Instead of the licensing organisation attacking individual fansites with fines and closuers, they got in contact with Habbo/Sulake to send out warning notices. Whoever said Habbo will be getting a cut of licensing fees really needs to get his head out of the clouds with such accusations, there is no evidence os these fees being split and if they were to be split with the organisation and Sulake, then the fees would be considerably larger to accomodate such an idea. Not forgetting that no fansite will pay that much and be around for much longer :P
Indeed, unless they want to go through the hassle of finding out where the music came from :PQuote:
Originally Posted by Leaahh.
I bet that they're only doing this cos they're company is going bust or something, animals.
Or Habbo contacted PPL about the issue because they are slowly trying to cut all fansites out and make everything more Habbo central. They want everyone to use the whole Habbo social side now. Habbo is becoming more social networky, and let's face it you don't get MySpace fansites do you? They want everyone to sue Habbo and only Habbo.
Sulake is behind this. I'm sure of it.
While Habbo were looking into their own way of having music on the hotel they were probably requesting information from PPL and then PPL looked into Habbo, looked on the site and saw fansites that had radios. That's how I think this happened anyway :P I don't think Sulake would purposely do this, at least I dont think the UK Office Staff would want it to happen. Lost_Witness tuned into a few shows on HxL today which was nice of him :8
I agree.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick.
The Sulake offices are only 2 miles away. Lost_Witness could walk there in 30 mins :P
Can I ask why everyone on the forum was forced to read the radio license thread? Over half of the people here don't listen to HabboxLive, so it's of no interest to us. Were we directed to the thread so we'd be reminded to vote Habbox in the HabboHut awards? That's pretty crafty of you.
If the radio is being broadcasted from any country in the world but it being received in the UK they require a license.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jordy
Yeah exactly, there is no way at all for people in the UK or any country that signed up to the PPL contracts to listen to Habbox (In the case they didn't have to pay because its the US). PPL arn't going to bend the rules for a Habbo Fansite either.Quote:
Originally Posted by HighFlight
And it has been said most if not all DJs would have played a illegally downloaded track on the radio and if it was investigated would leave you and possible Habbox in a bigger payment lol.
Radio licences are the reason why I didnt set up my own online radio station about a year ago now... I bought the shoutcast server (or rented it, whatever lol) and then did the research into the whole licenses thing and the whole area is very sketchy, you need a license to broadcast which can run into hundreds of pounds alone and then on top of that (if I remember correctly) you need to pay royalties on all the songs you play. But this does depend on the server location, your location, your listeners location etc. etc. Thats when I gave up and got a refund, haha. It was way over complicated and if things are to be done legally, the costs were very high. I'm suprised all these Habbo stations have lasted so long without running into legal trouble.
The DJ's/listeners don't pay the stream owner does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Carvalho
There were a lot of rumors, speculation, and questions. To prevent 200 people from being linked to the thread we forced it. If you didn't care you could switch off but it did apply to the continuity of one very important part of Habbox, and I do truly apologize for the seconds wasted but we thought a large portion of people would like to know :)Quote:
Originally Posted by Neversoft
The "we're not in the UK" business has been attempted but our "legal team" doesn't think it will work, but it has a shot. Since the bulk of our users are British that may qualify us as broadcasting in Britain. But as I pointed out we make no money off the listeners really (well ok there are ads but if we move it to an ad-free habboxlive.com).
No but they are responsible of who streams on their shoutcast therefore Habbox are responsible for what goes on air.Quote:
Originally Posted by HighFlight
What if HxL add a Terms of Use?Quote:
Originally Posted by Sam Carvalho
So if they want to be a DJ, they have accept stating there music is legal..
They do, any DJ that plays illegal music gets in trouble.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack120
Im thinking about opening a fansite with a radio, so can you try this theory and get back to us. kfnxbai. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by nvrspk4
After the license has been sorted you should get a receipt of all of your DJ's music purchase, because I'm betting most of the DJ's just d/l the music fro iwantmusik or limewire.
Ha, if they are Habbos plans, then good luck, Habbo is more of a game than a social networking site and because they are selling a product that has interesting features (like furniture etc), they'll always have fansites just to list these features. No-one is going to use Habbo as their primary social network site, not when there is little to socialise about and features to socialise through (their wall features suck and they won't allow photos to be uploaded), especially with their negative, anti-social behaviour :P They can't compete with Myspace or Facebook, they allow freedom of language (swearing, e-language etc), photos and blogs. Something Habbo won't ever allow, as it goes against so many policies and rules they themselves built.Quote:
Originally Posted by Nick.
If Habbo focus on the social networking side, they won't last. Habbo is a game to people, nothing to be taken seriously (unless lots of money has been spent on it, but that's not too serious anyway).
How will you know if a DJ has downloaded or purchased every song they play?Quote:
Originally Posted by nvrspk4
I doubt they'd spend hundreds of pounds for the songs they play but you never know.