Published by Randall Krause on Friday, March 16, 2007 [Permalink] [Return to Top]
Blanket Licensing: Music Clearance for the Digital Age
According to inside sources, Mary Beth Peters, former Register of Copyrights, is to testify at the House Judiciary Committee hearing on March 22. Her primary focus will be on reformation of the Section 115 license. However, she may have the opportunity to address some of the related pitfalls currently facing non-interactive Webcasters under the Section 114 license.
As an extension to Ms. Peters existing proposals for copyright modernization, I would welcome a comprehensive "blanket licensing" scheme for all digital music services — thereby abrogating the problematic copulsory license once and for all. Perhaps this approach bespeaks broader modernization of the Copyright Act, but in any respect, I believe that a more efficient and more economical means must be devised for digital music services to clear these necessary performance and master-use rights in sound-recordings (including any related rights in the musical-compositions embodied therein).
Commercial Webcasters should be fully equipped to meet the growing demands of the typical "online music consumer" and effectively compete in what is truly a prolific marketplace where illicit digital music services are undoubtedly becoming more and more predominant. For this reason, collective licensing within the free-market should be adopted as a replacement for the more cumbersome regulatory approach. This would promote increased competition in the arena of digital broadcast licensing, and would greatly streamline the overall rights acquisition process.
In addition, SoundExchange and Royalty Logic should ultimately assume the role of "recording rights societies", authorized on behalf of sound-recording copyright owners to execute these one-stop shop license agreements to digital music-services for the performance and reproduction of any sound-recordings within their respective repertories, and to administer the royalties from such performances and reproductions to the recording artists and record producers accordingly (as those rates and terms are nominally formulated).
Randall Krause
Executive Director
Small Webcaster Community Initiative
randall@smallwebcaster.org
