[Dixielandjazz] USA Copyright Law + ASCAP and BMI

[alevy at alevy.com]

My two cents. A few issues.
>From 1950 through 1955 I was a member of the
copyright committee of the American Association
of Music Arrangers.
We lobbied congress to make arrangers privy
to royalties as co-composers. We never got to first base.
Recording companies, Hollywood and Broadway pay the
arrangers for the job. There were a few exceptions, and
that only happened sometimes, with advertising agencies.
While "ghost writing" for Dean Kincaid I wrote the music
for Colgate, General Motors and other notable companies.
Flat Fee + no credit. That was okay by me, the pay was
very good.
Some arrangers got around the copyright law by re-naming
tunes and copyrighting them. For example "Swanee River"
is Sy Oliver's copyright as a work on a work. The original
of course (out of copyright) was "Old Folks At Home".
Tommy Dorsey's company "Embassy Music" published the 
Sy Oliver tune.
Next:
In 1993 I represented my computer club at the Javitts Center
in New York City. I was so en-raptured by my new toys,
Voyetra Gold - music sequencer and Finale notation software
I decide to bring all of my computer gear and play midi files
at the computer expo. I called the A.S.C.A.P. office and applied
for a restricted license. For $100.00 (I think) I could play their
music at 5 or 7 different shows within a year. A similar deal
was offered at B.M.I. and I applied for that license also.
When they found out that I intended exhibiting at a major expo
which charged visitors $50 to $150 a day I was turned down.
The reason: Both organizations wanted to charge the show
promoters a percentage of the gate! The show was sold out
every day to a crowd of perhaps 5,000 attendees each day,
for five days.
While I was handing out newsletters and other flyers promoting
the club, I had the computer playing p.d. tunes (midi files) in juke
box mode.
After a while I walked around the three floors of exhibitors and
noticed that game producers were playing tunes such as the
Star Wars Theme or other known music along with their videos.
>From that point on I decided to "change my tune", pun intended,
and play all the song that I had stored on my hard drive.
I gave demos on how to sequence and/or notate music with
software. I loved every minute of the show. No officials from
A.S.C.A.P. nor B.M.I. showed! I am a member of B.M.I.
A week or so later I fired off a letter to both organizations. 
In the letter I told them what I did and added that in their
stupidity the organization lost, the composers lost and since
I was a member, so did I. Their response follows: