David Lowery and Chris Castle discuss firing of the head of US Copyright Office, DOJ appeal of 100% Licensing Ruling and Artist Advocacy
@musicbizworld: @SOUNDEXCHANGE PAID OUT $264M IN Q3 – ITS BIGGEST QUARTER IN TWO YEARS — Artist Rights Watch
[Editor Charlie sez: big 45.2% increase in the number of people getting royalty payments from SoundExchange!] SoundExchange just paid out more than quarter of a billion dollars to recorded music rights holders – its biggest three-month distribution in two years. According to the US company’s latest data, it delivered $263.5m to labels and artists in […]
@edchristman: Commercial Radio Group Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Irving Azoff’s Global Music Rights — Artist Rights Watch
With ASCAP and BMI still under unaltered consent decrees and SESAC agreeing to rate-setting arbitration in a 2015 settlement, the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC) is going for the grand slam with an antitrust lawsuit against boutique performance rights organization Global Music Rights.
@alexeheath: Facebook is doing a $6 billion stock buyback [But Nothing for Songwriters] — Artist Rights Watch
Facebook is buying back up to $6 billion of its stock from shareholders, the company announced in a SEC filing on Friday–and still no music licenses.
@DavidIsraelite: It’s Time for Facebook to Accept Songwriters’ Friend Request — Artist Rights Watch
With views in the millions, it’s time for Facebook to answer songwriters’ friend request and properly license their platform. Otherwise, it may find itself de-friended by the music industry.
via @DavidIsraelite: It’s Time for Facebook to Accept Songwriters’ Friend Request — Artist Rights Watch
How many Counterfeit CDs Does Amazon Sell? — Artist Rights Watch
A provocative question–of course knowing the answer precisely would mean that Amazon actually knew which CDs were counterfeit to begin with. That means we need to guess, but sometimes guesses are more accurate that we may give them credit for. And we guess it’s in the 2 million unit range–and absurdly high number for the smartest guys in the room.
via How many Counterfeit CDs Does Amazon Sell? — Artist Rights Watch
How President Trump Can Give Songwriters and Publishers Immediate Relief from DOJ and LOC Overreach — Music Tech Solutions
The Obama Department of Justice filed notice on November 11 that it intended to use the peoples money to appeal BMI Rate Court Judge Louis Stanton’s devastating ruling against the DOJ’s bizarre position on “100% licensing”. Professor Steve Winogradsky and I summarized the results of the ruling in this post. Aside from the terrible legal […]
Electioneering Over, Songwriters No Longer Needed, Obama DOJ Gets Back to Suing Songwriters for Google
Obama like many political leaders has relied upon songwriters to shape his public persona and image. But Obama has also allowed his antitrust division to relentlessly persecute songwriters in ways that benefit Silicon Valley firms that are among his largest campaign donors.
Politicians, especially democratic politicians have always appealed to songwriters and performers for help campaigning and in shaping their images. But once the election is over we never see anything in return. Not even a “thank you.” But our long running abusive relationship with politicians seems to have hit a new low. It appears the Obama DOJ purposely waited until after all those celebrity/songwriter/performer campaign rallies were finished before they renewed their “100% licensing” legal crusade against songwriter non-profits BMI and ASCAP.
And I do mean “purposely waited.” Let me explain.
In late July the DOJ ordered songwriter organizations to offer “full work licensing” even on works that they didn’t completely control. The DOJ claimed that 70 year old antitrust consent decrees required this of songwriters. However this goes against standard co-writing convention and private contracts that often stipulate each songwriter license his/her share of a work. For 70 yeas the DOJ never once objected to this practice by songwriters. Why now? It was only after the Google backed MIC-Coalition (an astroturf lobbying group that represents… well… Google) wrote and asked DOJ Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse (herself a former Google lawyer) to require full work licensing of songwriters. Hesse agreed and tried to force the change on songwriters performing rights organization.
BMI a non-profit that licenses and collects performing rights royalties for songwriters asked a federal judge to block the DOJ from enforcing this new rule. On September 16 2016 Judge Stanton blocked the new rule. Blocked is perhaps too soft, maybe better: it was a complete and devastating smackdown for the DOJ. Judge Stanton barely spent half a day on the matter. In no uncertain terms the Judge told the DOJ the consent decrees said nothing about 100% licensing and to knock it off.
Although the DOJ indicated they might appeal, they went quiet. The election heated up. Obama hit the campaign trail for Clinton and other democratic candidates. Performers and songwriters as they usually do, made many appearances on behalf of (mostly) democratic candidates. Wednesday morning we awoke to President-Elect Trump and by Friday the Obama DOJ was back to suing songwriters.
But here’s the kicker: the DOJ filed a one sentence note to the court of appeals, appealing Judge Stanton’s ruling. ONE FUCKING SENTENCE! Are you telling me it took 8 weeks to write a one sentence notice? No, of course not. They could have filed this notice back in September. Songwriters, face it, we got used. We got rope-a-doped. We got played like suckers. Like we always do.
I’d love to see the emails between AG Lynch, Renata Hesse and the other lawyers in the Antitrust Division of the DOJ. I believe this was a pure political calculation with the election in mind.
If you want to FOIA the DOJ Antitrust Division you can do that here:
https://www.justice.gov/oip/department-justice-freedom-information-act-reference-guide
A Memo to the Librarian of Congress
DATE: November 9, 2016
TO: Carla Hayden, Librarian of Congress
FROM: David Mao, Deputy Librarian of Congress
SUBJECT: Hiring Criteria for Register of Copyrights
As you requested, following are recommended factors to consider when hiring the next Register of Copyrights. Obviously, these are only suggestions as your power is absolute.
- Be a kissass.
- Have no original thought.
- Be a kissass.
- Speak to no one but your absoluteness.
- Have excellent skills at making change in the LOC gift shop.
- Demand even more deposit copies under compulsory licenses that permit free copying by our allies.
- Know her/his place under your absoluteness.
- Be a kissass.
- Not look too hard for the owner of orphan works.
- Support your brilliant interpretation of Section 115 to give our allies a free license, no liability and hiding in plain sight! That is almost as brilliant as your interpretation of Section 108 to turn the LOC into a major feeder of Bit Torrent sites! Genius!
Separately, we should continue to quote your brilliant Congressional testimony where you say that the the Library supports “creators”. We know you meant YouTubers! Brava oh absolute one! Fooled them again with your genius!
You may also be interested in the slides from my lunch time talk, “How to Sell the Library: Tips for the Sovereignly Immune” at which I will discuss including the Library’s mandatory deposit copies in Google’s scanning project, especially the sound recordings and movies! Justice for Mickey at last!
Facebook the Massive Infringer — Artist Rights Watch
There’s a massive infringer hiding in plain sight. That’s a tactic that worked from the Case of the Purloined Letter to Osama Bin Laden–worked for a while, anyway. So who is this massive infringer? Pirate Bay? mp3skull? YouTube-mp3? No–it’s Facebook. That’s right. Facebook, the property that every band is told they must be on, the […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.