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The basics of music licensing in digital media

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 10 2010

Businesses that are involved in digital media use music in many ways and most require some sort of license to make the use legal.

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The basics of music licensing in digital media: 2011 update

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 10 2011

Businesses that are involved in digital media use music in many waysand most require some sort of license to make the use legal.

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The basics of music licensing in digital media: 2011 update

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • February 22 2011

Businesses that are involved in digital media use music in many waysand most require some sort of license to make the use legal.

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Beware - music use in podcasts, downloads and on-demand streams is not covered by your SoundExchange royalties

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 21 2011

Broadcasters beware - podcasts with music may be dangerous to your economic health.

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Another royalty payment for webcasters? EMI withdraws from ASCAP for new media licensing

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • May 8 2011

Just as webcasters thought that they had their royalty obligations figured out, there comes news that the already complicated world of digital media royalties may well become more complicated.

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Music royalty settlement announced on mechanical royalties - not a decision on webcasting rates

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • April 11 2012

The broadcast and music trade press brought news of a settlement between music companies and digital media services regrading digital music royalties.

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Pandora enters settlement to pay for public performance of SonyATV musical works - what's its impact on licensing for music services and rights holders?

  • Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 20 2013

Deciding how to pay music royalties has always been difficult - trying to figure out what permissions are necessary, who has the rights to grant such

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Judge orders ASCAP fees for radio to drop - on an interim basis

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • May 19 2010

Last week, a US District Court Judge adopted a new interim rate to be paid by commercial radio broadcasters to ASCAP for the use of ASCAP-licensed music by over-the-air radio stations, reducing the fees paid by the industry by about $40 million dollars, or about 20 of the total that had been paid by the industry under the rate deal that expired at the end of 2009.

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ASCAP and BMI - another royalty battle for broadcasters?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 3 2009

While we have written much about the battle over the broadcast performance royalty (or the "performance tax" as broadcasters call it) - whether broadcasters will have to pay artists and record labels for the right to play their music on the air - we have not written much about another looming issue with the royalties that broadcasters must pay to play music on their stations.

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Radio Music Licensing Committee announces settlement with BMI following settlement with ASCAP - why SESAC is not included

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • May 15 2012

The Radio Music Licensing Committee has announced a settlement with BMI over music royalties for the public performance of musical compositions for the period from 2010-2016.

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Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on radio performance royalty and platform parity for webcaster royalties

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • August 6 2009

On Tuesday, just before the Senate recesses for its summer vacation, an abridged version of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the proposed sound recording performance royalty for over-the-air radio.

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SoundExchange sending reminders to broadcasters who are not paying royalties for streaming music sound recordings

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 23 2010

In recent weeks, SoundExchange has begun to send letters to broadcasters who are streaming their signals on the Internet without paying their SoundExchange royalties.

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Restaurants and bars beware: failure to obtain a license to play a copyrighted music may expose you to substantial damages

  • Weintraub Genshlea Chediak Law Corporation
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 16 2012

Restaurants, bars, night clubs and similar establishments who play copyrighted music or have live performers play the compositions from copyrighted music should pay particular attention to a recent Ninth Circuit case, where the court awarded plaintiffs statutory damages as well as substantial attorney’s fees.

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ASCAP and BMI enter into agreement with RMLC for interim reductions in radio royalties until final fees are set

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • December 28 2009

The Radio Music Licensing Committee ("RMLC") has announced that it has entered into agreements with both ASCAP and BMI for interim royalties to be paid by commercial radio stations until final royalties are set.

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Second Circuit rules digital music downloads are not public performances under the Copyright Act

  • Proskauer Rose LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 11 2010

The Second Circuit recently held that the download of a digital file containing a musical work is not a "public performance" of the underlying work, and therefore that online music vendors need not obtain or pay for public performance licenses for their distribution of - and their customers' use of - digital music files.

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Register of Copyrights Maria Pallente calls for comprehensive copyright reform to adapt to the digital world - what is being proposed?

  • Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 10 2013

The Register of Copyrights, Maria Pallente, has made a series of speeches about the need to modernize Copyright, including offering testimony before

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BMI, music publishers bring copyright suit against Georgia restaurant, seeking statutory damages

  • Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 24 2013

Set in the beautiful north Georgia mountains, the scenic town of Ellijay, Georgia (population 1,619) provides a tranquil escape from the hectic pace

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Copyright Office issues letter in support of broadcast performance royalty - suggests that economic comeback for radio makes royalty more affordable

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 8 2010

According to a letter from the Copyright Office that has recently been made public, the economic troubles of broadcasters, which have been used to argue against the imposition of a performance royalty for the use of sound recordings by radio stations, are cyclical and are largely over.

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Def Leppard fire silver bullet in copyright stand-off

  • King & Wood Mallesons
  • -
  • Australia, USA
  • -
  • August 15 2012

Def Leppard and their record company, Universal, have once again proved that musicians and music labels go together like oil and water.

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ASCAP, SOCAN, public performances and telecommunications

  • Heenan Blaikie LLP
  • -
  • Canada, USA
  • -
  • September 30 2010

The US Federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit decision in US v ASCAP (sometimes referred to as ASCAP v RealNetworks) has generated a surprising amount of commentary - particularly from practitioners and academics outside of the United States.

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NAB Radio Board adopts proposal for settlement of performance tax issue - where do we go from here?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 25 2010

The NAB Radio Board today voted to adopt a Terms Sheet to offer to the musicFirst Coalition which, if agreed to by musicFirst and adopted by Congress, will settle the contentious issue of whether to impose a sound recording performance royalty (the "performance tax") on over-the-air broadcasters.

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Letters from ASCAP, BMI and RMLC - what's a broadcaster to do?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • November 18 2009

Radio broadcasters all over the country have been receiving letters about music royalties from ASCAP, BMI and the Radio Music Licensing Committee (RMLC).

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The political parody problem

  • Foley Hoag LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • September 2 2010

In a bid to win the hearts and minds of voters, lately political candidates have touted, among other things, their musical predilections.

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ASCAP cuts a deal with the radio industry on new royalties - no details as yet

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • December 5 2011

New ASCAP royalties are on their way to radio broadcasters.

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Digital music downloads are not public performances

  • McDermott Will & Emery
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 28 2010

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, affirming a district court, found that a download of a musical work does not constitute a public performance of that work. In that same case, the court vacated the district court’s assessment of license fees.

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Proposed Broadcast Performance Royalty back in the news - where is it going?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 9 2010

In one more indication that the Broadcast Performance Royalty (or "performance tax" as opponents of the legislation call it) is not dead yet is an article in yesterday's New York Times reviewing the issues at stake in the proceeding.

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Why the differing perceptions of the value of music by digital music services and copyright holders make royalty decisions so hard

  • Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 31 2013

With the National Association of Broadcasters big convention coming up next week in Las Vegas, this week we'll look at a couple of the issues that

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Apple iTunes gets the Beatles - why internet radio had them all along

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • November 16 2010

The big news in the music world this week is that Apple finally is able to sell digital downloads of the Beatles catalog in its iTunes music store.

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Warner Music says no more music for streaming - what does it mean for US webcasters?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • February 14 2010

According to British press reports, Warner Music's CEO Edger Bronfman Jr. stated that it will cease making its music available to advertising supported streaming music sites.

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Copyrights and campaigns: five tips for the unwary

  • Wiley Rein LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 15 2012

Many political campaigns and PACs fall into easily avoidable traps when it comes to copyright protection. Infringement can result in very significant liability: The copyright statute provides that willful infringers may be liable for up to $150,000 in statutory damages per work infringedwith no proof of actual damages requiredand even where statutory damages are not available, the law provides that infringers must pay for actual damage caused to the infringer.

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Recapturing copyrights: how the Village People’s policeman laid down the law

  • Sedgwick LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • June 6 2012

Thousands of musicians dream about the moment they will ink their first record deal.

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If you register your copyright claim in your musical recording, are the lyrics protected too?

  • Lewis and Roca LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • April 30 2010

Sound recordings and musical works are separately copyrightable works that can be owned by the same or different authors.

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Money matters a new report on how money is made in music

  • Duane Morris LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 20 2013

Is copyright law effective in achieving its intended purpose of incentivizing creativity? Professor Peter DiCola of Northwestern University Law

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Gazing into the crystal ball - what Washington has in store for broadcasters in 2013

  • Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 7 2013

Every year, about this time, I dust off the crystal ball to offer a look at the year ahead to see what Washington has in store for broadcasters. This year

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Senate Judiciary Committee approves broadcast performance royalty - with issues yet to resolve

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 15 2009

The Senate Judiciary Committee today approved the bill to impose a performance royalty (or the "performance tax" as the NAB had called it) on radio broadcasters for the public performance of sound recordings on their over-the-air stations.

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Looking into the crystal ball - what can broadcasters expect from Washington in 2010?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 7 2010

Another year is upon us, and it’s time for predictions as to what Washington may have in store for broadcasters in 2010.

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Second Circuit finds downloading music does not violate "performance" copyright

  • Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 7 2010

In U.S. v. American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (re Real Networks Inc. and Yahoo! Inc.), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed the narrow issue of whether downloading of digital musical files would infringe the public performance right of those works because the parties had acknowledged that downloading of music files would infringe the reproduction right of copyright holders.

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