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U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARING

     Written Testimony

     Statement

PRESS COVERAGE

ONION RIVER RADIO WEBSITE

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United States Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing

In his statement on behalf of the Recording Artists Coalition, musician Don Henley wrote:

Before passage of the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), recording artists were precluded from receiving royalties for public performance of their sound recordings. While songwriters receive public performance royalties for radio airplay for their musical compositions, recording artists receive nothing for radio airplay of their sound recordings. Broadcasting interests have always argued that a sound recording public performance right for radio airplay is not warranted because radio airplay helps sell records. The public performance right that was established for all other creators of copyrighted works does not apply to the recording artist for radio airplay. This inequity must not be forgotten when contemplating the fairness of webcasting rates.

The purpose of the hearing, held before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, was to discuss the proposed sound recording royalty rate released by the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel. Blake Smith (real name: Frank Richard Schliemann) supplied written testimony.

To read the written testimony you will need to select the desktop website or visit bandwagon.media on your computer.

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Statement Regarding the Congressional Approval of the SWSA

On November 15, 2002 Blake Smith (real name: Frank Richard Schliemann) issued the following statement regarding the Congressional approval of the SWSA (Small Webcaster Settlement Act of 2002):

As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator Patrick Leahy scheduled a hearing in May that gave Onion River Radio, on behalf of our industry, a high-profile platform to make the case for small commercial webcasters. Other Members of Congress then joined the cause, and the results are gratifying.

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