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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Using music in advertising or in a video production? Secure the necessary rights - ASCAP, BMI and SESAC licenses are not enough

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 5 2010

Using music in commercials is not as simple as just paying your ASCAP, BMI and SESAC royalties.

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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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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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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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Pandora and US copyright royalties

  • Heenan Blaikie LLP
  • -
  • Canada, USA
  • -
  • November 6 2012

A little over two years ago, in a post entitled "Pandora and Canadian Copyright Royalties", I examined why it was that online music service Pandora (formally Pandora Internet Radio) was not available in Canada but it was available in the United States.

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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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SiriusXM brings law suit against SoundExchange alleging collusion to stop direct licensing of music - impact on royalties?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 28 2012

SiriusXM announced that is has filed a legal action, including antitrust claims, against SoundExchange and A2IM (the American Association of Independent Music - the association of independent record labels), charging, according to a press release, these two organizations "with unlawfully interfering in SiriusXM's efforts to secure, through a competitive market, copyrights critical to its business.

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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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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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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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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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Final webcasting royalty rates published - a comparison of how much various services pay

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • March 14 2011

Last week, the Copyright Office published in the Federal Register the final decision of the Copyright Royalty Board on the statutory rates for Internet radio royalties - royalties paid by webcasters for the non-interactive streaming of sound recordings.

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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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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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SoundExchange seeks permission to distribute royalties based on proxy information

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • April 25 2011

What should SoundExchange do with money that it collects for the performance of sound recordings, when it does not know what sound recordings were played by a particular service?

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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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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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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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Direct licenses should be considered in determining reasonable royalty for performing rights organizations

  • McDermott Will & Emery
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 31 2012

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that rate courts can take into account direct license rates when determining reasonable royalties due to performing rights organizations in Broadcast Music Inc. v. DMX, Inc.

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Details of the ASCAP settlement with the radio industry - what will your station pay?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 30 2012

ASCAP and the Radio Music Licensing Committee have reached a settlement on the amount that radio stations will pay to ASCAP for the use of music for the period through the end of 2016.

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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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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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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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The debate over Sirius' attempt to directly license music - SoundExchange once said a marketplace negotiation to adjust for high rates "was to be expected"

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

There have been many reports about the attempts by Sirius XM Radio to license music directly from record labels, bypassing any royalty rates set by the Copyright Royalty Board.

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Full text of Copyright Royalty Board decision on Sirius XM and Music Choice royalties released - the basics of the decision

  • Wilkinson Barker Knauer LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 4 2013

The full decision of the Copyright Royalty Board setting the royalty rates to be paid to SoundExchange by Sirius XM and Music Choice from 2013 through

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Wholesale revenues can be the appropriate revenue base when determining the fair market value of a public performance license

  • Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • August 13 2012

The Second Circuit recently examined the proper basis for the royalty rate for a public performance license in American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers v. MobiTV, Inc.

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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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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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You know those interim ASCAP and BMI royalties? They may be more interim than you think

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

At the end of 2009, we wrote about the interim royalties agreed to by both ASCAP and BMI, agreeing to reduce the amount of royalties paid by commercial radio stations by 7 until final royalties were agreed to by these Performing Rights Organizations and broadcast groups (principally the Radio Music Licensing Committee), either through negotiations or by litigation.

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Copyright Royalty Board starts proceeding to set royalty rates for background music services - reminder to webcasters to start thinking of the next royalty case

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • January 5 2012

The Copyright Royalty Board has just announced that it is accepting petitions to participate in the next proceeding to set the royalty rates to be paid for the ephemeral copies made by "business establishment services" in connection with any digital transmission of sound recordings.

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Talk of a settlement on the terrestrial radio Performance Royalty - what would broadcasters get?

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 21 2010

The broadcast trade press has recently been full of talk of the possibility of reaching a settlement with the recording industry on the adoption of a Performance Royalty for broadcast stations - paying performers and record companies for the use of music by radio stations (on top of the fees already paid through ASCAP, BMI and SESAC to composers).

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Details on Sirius XM and SoundExchange settlement on internet radio royalties - an option for some commercial webcasters

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • August 9 2009

The recent settlement on internet radio royalties between Sirius XM Radio and SoundExchange provides yet another option for commercial webcasters trying to determine the royalties to be paid for the public performance of sound recordings.

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Second Circuit issues decision in music download case

  • Wiley Rein LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • October 12 2010

The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has issued a long-awaited decision confirming that websites that offer music downloads do not need licenses for the copyright public performance right.

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Pureplay webcasters and SoundExchange enter into deal under Webcaster Settlement Act to offer internet radio royalty rate alternative for 2006-2015

  • Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
  • -
  • USA
  • -
  • July 7 2009

A settlement under the Webcaster Settlement Act of 2009 was signed today by SoundExchange and a group of webcasters that I represented in the Copyright Royalty Board proceeding to determine the royalty rates for the use of sound recordings by Internet Radio stations for the period from 2006-2010.

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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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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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