Freedom Line Blog

CFIF steadfastly supports America’s world-leading tradition of strong intellectual property rights, which have made us the most creative, inventive and prosperous nation in human history.

That includes the music industry, which stands unrivaled in terms of worldwide influence and fecundity, but which we’ve noted merits attention from Congress:

Under byzantine laws, artists receive just compensation whenever their post-1972 recordings are played, but in many cases not for their pre-1972 recordings.  That’s an indefensible and arbitrary artifact that has persisted far too long.  Why should Neil Diamond receive payment whenever ‘America’ is played, but not classics like ‘Solitary Man?’

Fortunately, the opportunity to correct that unfairness has arrived.  Even better, legislation to correct the existing flawed system arrives alongside other music legislation that galvanizes the coalition to finally correct the situation.  As a result, a broad coalition of music organizations representing everyone from songwriters, composers, performers, publishers and labels support three new pieces of legislation…”

Well, this week offers very welcome news.

The Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447) has been introduced in Congress, as cogently summarized by the musicFIRST Coalition:

Introduced by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R – VA) and Ranking Member Jerrold Nadler (D – NY), the Music Modernization Act combines music licensing reforms outlined in the CLASSICS Act, Songwriters Equity Act of 2015, the rate standard parity provisions of the Fair Play Fair Pay Act, and AMP Act into a single, consensus piece of legislation.  The MMA addresses specific music legacy issues such as establishing federal copyright protection for artists who recorded before 1972, creating a single licensing entity to administer music publishing rights for all digital music and ensuring producers and engineers receive royalties for their contributions to the music they help create.

The consensus legislation introduced today in the House would not have been possible without the leadership from Chairman Goodlatte, Ranking Member Nadler, Rep. Doug Collins (R – GA), Rep. Darrell Issa (R- CA), Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D – NY) and other leaders from both parties who worked together to craft legislation that is broadly supported by the entire music industry, streaming services and music creators.”

This legislation is long overdue.  CFIF therefore applauds the Committee for its unanimous support, and urges swift passage by the House to finally rectify the existing unfairness in the nation’s music laws.