Quotes from Patent, Trademark & Copyright Journal
Quotes taken from:
PATENT, TRADEMARK & COPYRIGHT JOURNAL
VOL. 76, NO. 1874
JUNE 27, 2008
Copyrights/Performance Rights
Future of Music Licensing, Copyright Protection Debated at Law School Symposium
Making the case for a strong copyright protection and licensing system, Robert F. Merges, law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the songwriting profession is viable only because of the royalties negotiated by and paid to songwriters by PROs such as BMI, or its competitors ASCAP and SESAC.
Merges discounted the “withering away” thesis … that the need for copyrights will disappear because a better supply of material will come from collaborative creativity and the rise of “free culture.”
Peters proposed that licensing of music reproduction, distribution, and performance rights could be handled by a single music rights organization.
The marginalization of songwriters represents Merges’s greatest concern about any unified rights organization.
If the record labels are predominant in a unilicensing system, Merges has warned, the role that PROs play as advocates for songwriters would be lost. Songwriters would be edged out of the lion’s share of compensation, he has cautioned.
Dennis Morgan, songwriter and music publisher, agreed, saying that he fights with record companies virtually every day to receive the royalty payments they owe him.
In an audio conference following the symposium, Richard Conlon, vice president of new media and strategic development at BMI, similarly stressed the relevance of PROs’ experience. While record companies represent the “sell” and “own” rights of copyright, PROs represent “use"rights, Conlon said…. PROs are better positioned than the traditional record companies to handle the streaming of music over what Oman has called the “celestial jukebox” of the future.
