[Dixielandjazz] FWD:Copyright Royalty Board Decision

[eupher dude]

This from the AFM...FYI, but it does have a definite bias, since it's from a 
party involved in the case.
For what it's worth...

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A recent pro-musician decision of the Copyright Royalty Board has sparked a 
lot of adverse press. Even worse, webcasters and broadcasters have 
instigated a "grass-roots" campaign urging music fans to complain to 
Congress about the decision. The purpose of this e-mail is to make sure that 
musicians are informed about the facts - and to ask you to send your own 
pro-musician message to your representatives in Washington!

The Background. The Copyright Act requires webcasters and broadcasters to 
pay royalties when they stream sound recordings on the internet. By law, 50% 
of the royalties for streaming go to performers. SoundExchange collects the 
royalties and pays 45% of them directly to individual featured performers. 
SoundExchange pays 5% (the share set by statute) to the AFM and AFTRA Fund 
for distribution to session musicians and vocalists. The remaining 50% goes 
to the sound recording copyright owner - which is usually a record label but 
in some cases is also the performer.
The Decision. The judges heard 48 days of testimony and reviewed thousands 
of pages of evidence about the webcasting business and about the businesses 
of performers and record labels. AFM Vice President Harold Bradley and 
member Cathy Fink testified about the creative work musicians do in the 
recording process, and about how important this new income stream is to 
musicians. President Tom Lee testified about the ways SoundExchange works 
for musicians. And then the judges carefully considered all they had heard - 
and got it right. They wrote a careful, 115-page decision that acknowledged 
the value of musicians' creative work and the importance of fairly 
compensating us when businesses use our product.

The Webcaster Backlash. Although the webcasters and broadcasters presented a 
complex and detailed case to the judges - and although the hearing process 
is one that they asked Congress to create - some don't like the result and 
are seeking a Congressional override. This makes no sense. What is worse is 
that large (and wealthy) webcasters like AOL and Yahoo are hiding behind a 
few small webcasters who complain that as "small businesses," they can-t 
afford to pay the royalties. Webcasters made similar complaints the last 
time rates were set in 2002 - and since then, webcaster revenues overall 
have jumped from $50 million to $500 million per year.

Performers Need to Be Paid for Use of Our Work. Most musicians need to patch 
together lots of income streams in order survive - including royalties for 
the use of our recordings. Please let Congress know how important this money 
is to musicians! Urge your representatives to resist the pressure to 
override the rates set by the CRB.

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