Something Old, Something New: Forecasting Willing Buyer/Willing Seller’s Impact on Songwriter Royalties

Mechanical royalties payable to songwriters for digital reproductions of their works on services such as Spotify and Apple Music are determined through a convoluted quasi-trial in front of an administrative body called the Copyright Royalty Board (“CRB”). The CRB is itself governed by statutory rate standards that constrain the types of evidence and analyses it may consider when setting royalty rates. In 2018, Congress passed a much-heralded, consensus piece of music legislation called the Music Modernization Act (“MMA”). The MMA attacked a broad swath of issues across the music industry, including, most visibly, establishing a blanket license for digital mechanical licenses, and a statutory entity to administer that license. But buried within the MMA was a less-celebrated wrinkle: a provision that replaced the old 801(b) rate standard used by the CRB for mechanical royalties with a new “willing buyer/willing seller” rate standard. While the new standard was seen as a victory for songwriters, its precise practical effects remain unsettled. Will it really increase rates? If so, why? What evidence, arguments, and analysis will it allow—and foreclose—relative to the old standard? This Comment seeks to answer these questions through a comparative case study of two past CRB proceedings. First, it dissects the analyses that shaped the CRB’s Phonorecords III decision—the most recent mechanical royalty rate-setting proceeding, and the last to use the old 801(b) rate standard. Second, it undertakes a similar analysis of the CRB’s Web IV decision, the most recent instance in which the CRB applied the willing buyer/willing seller standard to a rate-setting proceeding for a different rights type (the digital performance of sound recordings). It then compares and contrasts those two proceedings to predict how willing buyer/willing seller will operate in the digital mechanical royalty context. From that comparison it concludes that, while the change does skew songwriter-friendly, there is also a significant amount of uncertainty that may render the change less significant than copyright owners hope—and music licensees fear

Comments on Preliminary Draft 7 [black letter and comments]

PD7 is often confusing, largely as a result of failure to provide important explanations or definitions, or to tell the reader where that information can be found. Key terms, such as “edicts of law” and “formalities” remain undefined. Formalities are a principal topic of PD7; they deserve a more thorough description than the draft contains, addressing what formalities are, whether every declaratory obligation (or option) is a “formality,” or only those that go to the existence or enforcement of copyright (this is the Berne Convention meaning of “formality”)

University of North Florida Faculty Publications 1972-1997

Alphabetical list, by author, of faculty publications from 1972-1997. List compiled for the University of North Florida\u27s 25th anniversary. Header includes a black and white sketch of Thomas G. Carpenter Library

The Dilemma of Basia's Pendant: European Community Design and the Protection of an Artist's Creations and Intellectual Property

This article is a description of the process of protecting a designer’s intellectual property through registration with the European Union Intellectual Property Office or EUIPO or through relying on the status of an Unregistered Community Design. The article discusses the registration process as well as the process of invalidation and considers issues relating to the enforcement of rights. Finally, the article focuses on whether a complaint about possible copyright infringement may be lodged against an online retailer or an online e-commerce website that offers unlicensed sales or unauthorized copies of a designer’s design by utilizing the descriptions or photographs of the designer

МУЗИЧНА ІНТЕРПРЕТАЦІЯ В КОНТЕКСТІ МИСТЕЦТВА ЗВУКОЗАПИСУ

The purpose of the article is to identify and characterize the peculiarities of interpretation as a unique phenomenon of musical art in the context of the specifics of sound recording. Methodology. The method of cultural-historical analysis was applied, which contributed to the consideration of the process of development and transformation of interpretation in musical art, and also helped to trace the specifics of the evolution of the art of sound recording; the comparative method, thanks to which the features of the interpretation of a piece of music by the performer, sound engineer and listener are revealed; philosophical, cultural and art history methods of analysis, which contributed to the identification of cause-and-effect relationships and regularities in the functioning of the peculiarities of musical interpretation in the art of sound recording, its consideration, and understanding in the unity of all elements, the reproduction of the context of the socio-cultural space in which this phenomenon developed. Scientific novelty. The musical interpretation is investigated in the context of the specifics of the art of sound recording; the influence of postmodern tendencies on the formation of a new paradigm of interpretation of recorded musical work is revealed; the problem of interpretation in the art of sound recording is characterized at the level of performing an interpretation of a musical work, its fixation as an important semantic process that generates new cultural meanings and sound engineering activities. Conclusions. The study revealed that in the context of the art of sound recording, musical interpretation manifests itself on several levels, since in a recorded musical work, as a material object that is accessible to the senses "in infinite variability of reading" (according to J. Derrida), through the prism of the personality of the author of the musical work, the performer and sound engineer embody ideas about reality, and artistic information encoded and decoded by them takes on its final form only in the mind of the listener.Мета статті – виявити та охарактеризувати особливості інтерпретації як унікального явища музичного мистецтва в контексті специфіки звукозапису. Методи дослідження. Застосовано метод культурно-історичного аналізу, що посприяв розгляду процесу розвитку і трансформацій інтерпретації в музичному мистецтві, а також простеженню специфіки еволюції мистецтва звукозапису; компаративний метод, завдяки якому виявлено особливості інтерпретації музичного твору виконавцем, звукорежисером та слухачем; філософсько-культурологічний та мистецтвознавчий методи аналізу, що посприяли виявленню причинно-наслідкових зв’язків та закономірностей функціонування особливостей музичної інтерпретації в мистецтві звукозапису, розгляду та осмисленню її в єдності усіх елементів, відтворенню контексту соціокультурного простору в якому розвивалося дане явище. Наукова новизна. Досліджено музичну інтерпретацію в контексті специфіки мистецтва звукозапису; виявлено вплив постмодерністичних тенденцій на формування нової парадигми інтерпретації записаного музичного твору; охарактеризовано проблематику інтерпретації в мистецтві звукозапису на рівні виконавської інтерпретації музичного твору, його фіксації як важливого сенсоутворюючого процесу, що породжує нові культурні значення та звукорежисерської діяльності. Висновки. Дослідження виявило, що в контексті мистецтва звукозапису музична інтерпретація проявляється на кількох рівнях, оскільки в записаному музичному творі, як матеріальному об'єкті, що доступний  сприйняттю органами чуття «в нескінченній варіативності прочитання» (за Ж.-Ж. Деррідом), крізь призму творчої особистості автора музичного твору, виконавця та звукорежисера втілюються уявлення про дійсність, а художня інформація, закодована та декодована ними набуває остаточної форми лише в свідомості слухача

An Independent Record Label Business Plan

A business plan created for an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The record label is focused on solving the gender inequality problem that currently exists in the music industry

The Super Brawl: The History and Future of the Sound Recording Performance Right

On February 4, 2009, Senator Patrick Leahy introduced the Performance Rights Act ( PRA ) to the Senate, joined by Representative John Conyers in the House of Representatives. Thirty-eight years after sound recordings were first granted federal copyright protection against unauthorized reproduction and distribution--and more than ten years after gaining a limited digital performance right--legislation is pending that would once again expand the scope of sound recording copyright to encompass terrestrial radio broadcasts. Historically, such broadcasts have been exempt from sound recording performance royalties.[...] Instead of (or in addition to) seeking remuneration from terrestrial radio stations, this Note suggests that sound recording copyright holders should seek to further expand their digital performance right to permit collection of royalties from websites which regularly perform user-generated audiovisual works. While such royalties would not be as lucrative as those collected from terrestrial stations in the short term, such a strategy would secure a right that will become increasingly valuable as music distribution continues to evolve into an online, performance-based platform. In consideration for an annual blanket fee, performance-based sites would not be subject to costly Digital Millennium Copyright Act notice-and-takedown proceedings or copyright infringement actions by participating sound recording copyright owners. Such a compromise would allow sound recording copyright holders and artists to receive just compensation when their works are performed online, save sites like YouTube millions in administrative and legal fees, and permit Internet users to freely and fairly post audiovisual clips online. This Note will attempt to reconcile the history of the sound recording performance right with the recently introduced PRA, and propose an alternative (or supplemental) strategy for further expanding the right online. Part I summarizes in detail the background for the rights involved with this topic. Part II provides a primer on the music licensing process in the United States, placing particular emphasis on the tumultuous brawl between sound recording copyright owners and webcasters. Parts III and IV focus on the substance of and the political motivations underlying the PRA. Finally, Part V describes the alternative proposal for licensing performances of sound recordings online as introduced above, suggesting a sustainable alternative to the PRA that would benefit consumers and industry alike

Design of Theoretical Framework: Global and Local Parameters Requirements for Libraries

Library is one of the important aspect in modern reading environment. Theoretical framework is an inevitable and indispensable for each and every library in the field of automated and digital library system. In this original research paper all the parameters have selected on the basis of global recommendations and local requirements for libraries in six theoretical sections. Designing the theoretical framework in the following areas such as (i) Theoretical framework of integrated library system cluster (ii) Theoretical framework of community communication and interaction (iii) Theoretical framework of digital media archiving cluster (iv) Theoretical framework of content management system (v) Theoretical framework of learning content management system (vi) Theoretical framework of federated search system. Integrated library system cluster two things are more important development of ILS and open source ILS software. On the other hand it also crafted the requirement of parameters selection and it can be developed in three ways such as basic parameters settings, theoretical framework for housekeeping operations, and theoretical framework for information retrieval system. Software selection and parameter selection is also an pivotal tasks in the field or theoretical framework of community communication and interaction. Theoretical framework of digital media archiving cluster can be developed in three sections such as selection of software, selection of standards, and metadata selection for all the libraries. Content management system can be developed in three ways such as workflow of content management system, software selection in CMS cluster, and parameters selection in CMS cluster. Development of theoretical framework of learning content management system for libraries in three sections such as Components of Learning Content Management System , Software selection in LCMS cluster, and Parameters selection in LCMS cluster. Software selection and parameters selection is also an important components in the federated search system theoretical framework for the development of single window based interface