« House Science Committee Visits The Lone Star State | Main | YouTube, Twitter Augment China Earthquake Coverage »
Music Group Tries To 'Demystify' Rights
The 320,000-member American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers published a position paper last week to "demystify the basic rights of music creators" amid growing confusion and concern around music copyright issues. The topic has been a recent favorite on Capitol Hill.
The paper helps define a "right" and copyright basics; and explains the meaning of "performing rights." It also asks the gazillion-dollar question: "Are rights still relevant in the digital age?" The document also includes a "Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers," which has collected over 6,000 signatures in support to date online.
The document centers around 10 core principles like: "We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate." In addition to the flurry of online signatures, a number of prominent musicians have backed the effort, including Lionel Richie, Stacy "Fergie" Ferguson and Justin Timberlake.
If they haven’t already, the group might want to send a copy of the position paper and bill to the 200-plus members of the House who have signed a resolution to fight legislation to nix an exemption granted to AM and FM radio stations that allows them to broadcast music without paying royalties.
A similar effort just began in the Senate. Read more about it CongressDaily's AM edition on Tuesday.
Posted by Andrew on May 12, 2008 10:16 PM | Permalink
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://amcblog.nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4059
