Recently, on December 12, 2023, the Copyright Royalty Judges announced a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increase in the mechanical royalty rates for the 17 U.S.C. §115 statutory license for making and distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical works regarding physical phonorecords and Permanent Downloads. The new rate is 12.40 cents per reproduction or 2.39 cents per [...]
The first of the month (August 2016), the Department of Justice issued a summary of findings with regard to two court orders that govern the operation of two of the U.S. performing rights organizations (the “PRO’s”), ASCAP and BMI. If it stands, the decision will also affect the third PRO, SESAC.Songwriters and music publishers around [...]
By Morgan Wisted & Barry Neil Shrum Just over half way through, and already it has been a tough year of losses in the music industry. Glenn Frey, one of the members of my favorite band of all time, the Eagles, kicked off the year early when he passed in January, shortly after [...]
“[E]very man has a property in his own person. This nobody has any right to but himself. The labour of his body, and the work of his hands, we may say, are properly his….”[1] John Locke - a political and social philosopher of 17th Century Enlightenment England and the father of “Classical Liberalism” - was [...]
Since taking over Mary Beth Peters as Register of Copyrights in 2011, Maria Pallante has been listening and responding to the concerns of a number of her constituents, particularly those in the music industry, and it most certainly shows. In the last few months, several pieces of work product have been delivered by the Copyright [...]
Is it time for Congress to draft a replacement for the 1976 Copyright Law? In point of fact, the law was drafted almost half a decade ago now and its last major amendment came in 1998 with the addition of the DMCA. Many argue that the advent of digital technology, driven of course by the [...]
In 2009 the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) estimated 95% of all digitally downloaded music was obtained illegally. This leaves only 5% of potential revenue to be distributed between all those who play a part in today’s music culture, including the most affected group, songwriters and music publishers. While some opponents dispute that number, [...]
We recently wrapped up the exclusive songwriting agreement between my client, Logan Brill and Carnival Music. Logan and her family are from the Knoxville area. She moved here to pursue a music degree at Belmont University, but ended up with a major in French and a minor in vocal performance. Logan is writing with other [...]
The recent decision presented by the honorable Judge Chin on the matter of copyright infringement in the case The Authors Guild v. Google Inc. raised numerous issues in the arena of Intellectual Property. In addition to opposing the “opt-out” stipulation written into the settlement, Judge Chin also contested the way Google Inc. approached and viewed [...]
NBC Universal recently hired a company called Envisional to study counterfeiting activity over the Internet. The results of this study – despite the fact that it is industry funded – are literally astonishing: 24% of all global Internet traffic involves digital theft! Stated another way, one in every four people surfing the Internet are stealing [...]
