HOME

U.S. SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE HEARING

     Written Testimony

     Statement

PRESS COVERAGE

ONION RIVER RADIO WEBSITE

LISTENER FEEDBACK

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 and issued a statement regarding the Congressional approval of the SWSA (Small Webcaster Settlement Act for Internet radio stations with less than $2 million in revenue).

close