Who can forget the nightmare of the Justice Department’s counterproductive flirtation with 100% licensing the last time the DOJ reviewed the consent decrees. (We covered the 100% licensing head fake in a podcast and a guide to 100% licensing.) Since then, the Congress passed the Music Modernization Act, which includes a massive overhaul of the mechanical […]
Let’s be clear–one reason why there are problems with mechanical licensing in the US is the loophole created by the government consent decrees that block ASCAP and BMI from issuing a “unilicense” for both performances and streaming mechanicals. I have argued for years that PROs should be allowed to administer existing statutory mechanical licenses for […]
Great news today that the appeals court upheld BMI’s ruling by the BMI rate court judge that there is no such thing as 100% licensing under the consent decrees. Although it’s like winning an appeal that the Sun really does rise in the East, it’s good to put that issue to one side and to poke a stick in Google’s eye.
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 […]
We begin by stating once again that we strenuously object to the timetable set by the DOJ for the submission of these comments. Unlike the many multi-‐national, billion-‐dollar corporations identified by your Division as “interested parties” concerning this matter (including one of the world’s richest, most powerful and influential corporations, Google), our coalition of music […]
Music Technology Policy 
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