If you have been following the machinations by the Obama Justice Department [sic] over amending the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees, you may have found yourself wondering who was responsible for rejecting the good faith efforts of the songwriting community in favor of a cynical back room deal with multinational tech companies and broadcasters. I […]
Professor Stephen Carlisle debunks the DOJ’s theories for 100% licensing. via Stephen Carlisle: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! The Department of Justice v. ASCAP — Artist Rights Watch via Stephen Carlisle: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up! The Department of Justice v. ASCAP — Artist Rights Watch
The Obama Department of Justice has been conducting invitation only conference calls with songwriters about the DOJ’s proposed 100% licensing regime they’d like to impose by means of the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees. And these are the calls we know about–I have to assume that the Administration is doing the same with Digital Media Association, Public Knowledge and who knows who else. It is unclear whether any of those comments received or transcripts of conference calls will ever be subject to…ahem…the Freedom of Information Act.
The Justice Department’s position on 100% licensing implies that a voluntary license is the same as a government mandate.
In case you’re trying to figure out what in the world the Department of Justice is thinking with its recent ruling on 100% licensing for PROs, maybe a page of history is worth a volume of logic. In a nutshell, there is a doctrine of U.S. copyright law that permits a co-owner of an undivided […]
More on this later, but the United States opposes the Google Books settlement. So kind it is almost sarcastic: “[I]t should not be a surprise that the parties did not anticipate all of the difficult legal issues such anambitious undertaking might raise….As presently drafted, theProposed Settlement does not meet the legal standards this Court must […]
Music Technology Policy 
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