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LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PERFORMANCE RIGHTS BILL
(HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES BILL 848 AND SENATE BILL 379)! |
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FROM THE MUSICFIRST COALITION
What is the Performance Rights Act?
Every time you stop the dial to listen to an artist's distinctive voice, radio stations make money by selling advertising around it. But corporate radio doesn't pay a cent to the musicians, vocalists, and recording artists or labels who make the sound that brings in listeners - and money. The Performance Right Act (H.R. 848) would require radio stations to compensate recording artists and copyright owners when they use music, comedy, spoken word, or other recording to make money, just like they compensate songwriters. For the first time, recording artists would see a piece of the massive profits made on the backs of their creative work. Why Now? The better question is how this loophole, which lets AM and FM radio stations exploit musicians, has survived for so long. There's been a push to change this law for more than 40 years, but corporate radio isn't giving up their free gravy train without a fight. Now, more than ever, with music coming from all kinds of sources, radio should be held to the same standard as its competitors. It's time for AM and FM radio to pay artists and copyright owners fairly. Who Pays Now? Terrestrial (AM&FM) radio's competitors - Internet, satellite, and cable radio - all pay a performance right when they use the creative property of artists and rights owners. In addition, every industrialized country except the United States has a performance right. That means when American-made music is played overseas, other countries collect royalties for, but don't pay American artists, because we don't collect for their artists here. AM/FM radio has long been required to pay songwriters, but have so far succeeded in stiffing the artists who bring recordings to life. H.R. 848 would change that at last. Who Benefits? Performance royalties would mean a better life for artists, who often struggle to make ends meet while others get rich from their creative property. A performance right would ensure that artists are justly paid, and finally put the stereotype of the 'starving artist' in the past, -where it belongs. What about small, low-revenue, non-profit, and minority-owned stations? The Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848) contains an amendment which creates a sliding scale for low-revenue broadcasters. Three-quarters of all radio stations, including 90% of all African American-owned commercial music radio stations, would never pay more than $420 a month for all the music they can play. Public, college radio and nonprofit religious stations would pay about $85 a month. There are sensible solutions out there for small and non-profit stations, and those agreements don't have to mean compromising the rights of artists. Another Tax? No! Corporate radio has wrongly labeled performance royalties a "tax." No money is going to the government here, but to the creators of sound recordings - the lifeblood of any radio station. No other business in the world claims they should make a profit without paying for the raw materials they use - bakers pay for flour, designers pay for cloth, corporate radio should pay for music. Ending this loophole would mean an even playing field for all broadcasters, and an overdue end to unpaid exploitation of artists. ******************************* **H.R. 848: Performance Rights Act - SUMMARY Introduced 2/4/2009 -- Read the bill in its entirety here
Amends federal copyright law to:
**This summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress. ******************************
**S. 379: Performance Rights Act - SUMMARY
Read the bill in its entirety here .
10/15/2009--Reported to Senate amended. Performance Rights Act - Section 2 - Amends federal copyright law to: (1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters (AM and FM radio); and (2) modify the circumstances under which the public performance of a sound recording is subject to statutory licensing. Section 3 - Establishes an annual flat fee in lieu of royalty payments for certain small, noncommercial, educational, and religious terrestrial broadcast stations that have annual revenues falling within specified ranges. Prohibits such annual fees from being taken into account in any Copyright Royalty Board rate-setting proceeding or in any other federal government proceeding. Includes broadcasts of religious services or incidental uses of musical sound recordings publicly by digital audio transmission among performances of a sound recording that are not copyright infringements. Section 4 - Provides a per program license option for terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings. Section 5 - Prohibits: (1) license fees payable for the public performance of sound recordings from being used in any governmental proceeding to set the license fees payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works to adversely affect such license fees; (2) a licensee of a sound recording from publicly performing such sound recording unless a license has been granted for the public performance of any copyrighted musical work contained in the sound recording; (3) anything in this Act from adversely affecting the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works; and (4) rates established by the Copyright Royalty Judges for the public performance of sound recordings from being used in any governmental proceeding to adversely affect license fees payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works by terrestrial broadcast stations. Section 6 - Entitles a featured recording artist who performs on a sound recording that has been licensed for public performance by means of an audio transmission to payments from the sound recording's copyright owner in accordance with the terms of the artist's contract. Requires: (1) sound recording copyright owners to deposit 1% of the receipts from their licensing of public performance rights by means of an audio transmission into the American Federation of Musicians and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund for distribution to nonfeatured performers who have performed on sound recordings; and (2) the Fund to pay 50% to nonfeatured musicians and 50% to nonfeatured vocalists. Section 7 - Amends the standard for ephemeral/temporary copies of sound recording license rates to: (1) apply rates that represent the "willing buyer-willing seller" standard and sets forth guidelines for determining rates; and (2) provide that for transmissions pursuant to a public performance license rates shall be established covering the applicable public performances and the related making of phonorecords, and the royalty for the making of phonorecords used by the transmitting organization solely to facilitate transmissions for which it pays royalties shall constitute 5% of such payments. **This summary was written by the Congressional Research Service, a well-respected nonpartisan arm of the Library of Congress. |
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