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Staffers at the Pacifica radio station have been told that, due to copyright and licensing issues, KPFK's music archive is being taken offline.
Sent: Fri 2/19/2010 3:01 PM
To: staff
Subject: Attention: KPFK will no longer host online archives of Music Programming Feb 19, 2010 Effective Immediately
Until further notice, KPFK will no longer host online arcvhives of Music Programming.
This includes on-demand archival streams, downloadable archives and podcasts.
This is being done due to licensing issues. We regret having to suspend this valuable resource at this time. We hope to resume this service as soon as possible
- KPFK Management
Interim general manager Bob Conger elaborates in a reply email:
From: Bob Conger
Sent: Fri 2/19/2010 3:48 PM
Subject: Music archives and podcasts.
Let's be clear, the immediate problem that KPFK has regarding this issue is the possibility of HUGH [huge] fines.
That is THE reason for not continuing to archive on the website at the moment.
Many websites and radio stations that have been doing this are not licensed and face the possibility of being fined.
KPFK cannot afford to pay fines.
We are and we have been looking into licenses that will cover archiving and podcasting.
What we have found out so far is that licensing is NOT cheap.
We hope this is just a temporary situation and will be rectified soon.