Congress Is Best Positioned To Craft Music Licensing Reform?
Debate over how best to reform the U.S. music-licensing system has heated up in the wake of the U.S. Justice Department’s recent inquiry into the consent decrees that govern the nation’s two largest performance-rights organizations (PROs), which oversee how copyrighted music is licensed to bars, restaurants and other businesses.
A new policy study from R Street Innovation Policy Director Mike Godwin makes the case that neither the Justice Department, the U.S. Copyright Office nor the federal courts are the proper venue to determine whether and how the consent decrees ought to be altered to better serve the interests of creators, licensees and the general public. Any such change should properly come from Congress itself.
Among the most pressing questions is whether to grant music publishers the ability to withdraw only part of their rights from the consent-decree framework. Specifically, some publishers would like to withdraw only their digital rights to allow them the chance to negotiate directly with providers of internet radio and other digital streaming services. Also at issue is whether changes are needed in dealing with so-called “fractional rights,” with some proposing that rights-holders be able to license 100 percent of compositions despite not owning 100 percent of the rights to the work. Such changes could address many common complaints, but would also create new shortfalls of their own, Godwin argues.
“It’s generally understood there is an underlying public-policy interest in ensuring that copyrighted music gets licensed simply and easily and, to the greatest degree possible, in a way that allows the general public to discover and enjoy,” Godwin writes “But uncertainty about the need to license-or about how to ensure a license is adequate with regard to music rights-can be a problem for restaurants and small businesses.”
Ultimately, making the American music licensing system more efficient is a complex task best handled by Congress.
“It’s hard to know for sure which direction Congress might choose when it comes to reforming the labyrinthine landscape for licensing music copyrights,” Godwin writes. “But given the sheer complexity of music copyrights and the number of stakeholders involved-including the general public, which is not necessarily fully represented by the DOJ or in the Copyright Office proceedings-asking Congress to intervene and determine the right answer is the surest path we have to find it.”
Source: R Street Innovation
