Re: Copyright clearance

[Tad Turner <tad@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/22/02 at 7:33 AM, the.kurtz.quartet <kurtz@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> "threat to independent music" ... ?
> 
> this law/ruling only applies to distribution and as long as you
> have the copyright owners permission you can continue as before.

You're absolutely correct.

There's been a bunch of reference to the RIAA, which is probably
justified, but I believe they're just a lobby for the music industry.

The mechanism to look at is BMI/ASCAP, which is the clearinghouse for
royalties in the braodcast industries. Your comment caused me to look
some of this up, so I'll admit to not being very familiar with the whole
deal.

Both entities perform a service by providing a blanket license for a
braodcaster to use their members' works in their programming. This saves
a broadcast entity from having to cut deals with each artist
individually.

The members' then have to fight with their organization for what they
feel are acceptable broadcast royalties. (I think this is where the
Library of Congress rulings come in. They establish a yardstick for
these "new media" entities.) This is apparently how BMI was formed:
Radio braodcasters in the 1930's wanted greater control over their
costs, and exploited ASCAP's royalty scales, which favored established
composers over newer ones.

The broadcasters formed BMI by luring away the disgruntled from ASCAP
with a better royalty structure.

(I got this from Eric Barnouw's wonderful _Golden Web_, volume two of
his history of broadcasting.)

So the thing to do is create an independent clearing house for
"marginal" (sorry!) artists that would provide appropriate fee/free
structures for Internet radio and other outlets for their work.

Any takers?

-Tad