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New Pre-1972 Pandora Lawsuit In California Swells The Ranks
On Oct. 2 Flo & Eddie, former members of the Turtles, brought a state-law class action against Pandora in central California's U.S. District Court over nonpayment of performance royalties on pre-1972 recordings. This is the latest lawsuit targeting the online radio service, which was sued in April in New York state court by several major record labels over unlicensed use of pre-1972 recordings. The Pandora action is not the first for Flo & Eddie, who are among a group of artists litigating over lack of pre-1972 payments by digital services. On Sept. 22 the pair of Turtles members won a motion for summary judgment in a similar lawsuit against satellite broadcaster Sirius XM. Sirius, which recently expressed its intention to appeal the Flo & Eddie loss, faces other 2013 class action suits from Flo & Eddie in New York and Florida, and from record labels in California. Pre-1972 performance right has also come up in other lawsuits, including a case about the total amount of damages caused by infringement. In May, H.R. 4772, the RESPECT Act, was introduced to provide a potential quick fix for the pre-1972 issue. With elections now looming and few legislative days remaining for this Congress, its future is uncertain. The unfairness of music licensing regulation in the United States is starkly illustrated by performers on pre-1972 recordings who don't receive adequate compensation for their work. These half-dozen lawsuits will test the reliability of state remedies. As tracked by a 2011 Copyright Office report, a multitude of state statutes pertain to pre-1972 recordings. States also provide common law property protections that should be applicable to performers' intellectual property. It seems unlikely that music businesses such as Pandora and SiriusXM will be able to avoid this fundamental issue of fairness for much longer.
New York Is Music Campaign Promotes $60 Million Tax Break
The New York Times covered the launch of the New York Is Music coalition on Oct. 7. The coalition, which has united more than 60 locally active businesses and organizations, including The Recording Academy, is lobbying for passage of New York State Assemblyman Joseph Lentol's Empire State Music Production Tax Credit. The bill would give people who record and produce music a 20 percent state tax credit, estimated to total $60 million. Assemblyman Lentol emphasized this credit is targeted for "the working stiff" and not superstar artists.
BitTorrent, Pew Explore The Edge Of Online
BitTorrent and GRAMMY winner Thom Yorke announced on Oct. 3 that first-week downloads for Yorke's album, Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, which was released as a BitTorrent Bundle broke the 1 million mark. The release was an experiment to see how consumers took to the Bundle's strategy of making it convenient for users to pay for more tracks. Sales numbers were not disclosed. Separately, Pew Research Center released the results of a survey of experts asking what changes ultra high speed Internet will bring. Some 86 percent of respondents believed killer apps would rise to the challenge with new forms of entertainment such as life streaming, which entails a user netcasting details about how they spend every day.
The Recording Academy actively represents the music community on such issues as intellectual property rights, music piracy, archiving and preservation, and censorship concerns. In pursuing its commitment to addressing these and other issues, The Recording Academy undertakes a variety of national initiatives. ArtsWatch is a key part of an agenda aimed at raising public awareness of and support for the rights of artists. To become more involved, visit Advocacy Action @ GRAMMY.com and sign up for Advocacy Action E-lerts.