Special Edition: Busiest Tuesday Ever | July 15, 2014
Greetings, FMC friends! In this quick update, we’re letting you know about two major happenings, adding up to one jam-packed day of music advocacy.
1. FMC to Tell Congress: Protect Artists’ Ability To Reclaim Rights
Over the past year, we’ve been watching closely as the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet has undertaken a systematic examination of US Copyright Law, including many topics important to musicians.
On Tuesday, we’re finally going to be able to step up to the microphone ourselves, as Casey Rae, FMC’s VP of Policy & Education, will appear as a witness in a hearing on “Moral Rights, Termination Rights, Resale Royalty, and Copyright Term.” Among the topics up for discussion: artists’ ability to reclaim the rights to their back catalog after 35 years. We’ve argued for years now that this right is crucial to musicians and songwriters, even as certain big labels would prefer to keep those copyrights for themselves indefinitely.
Casey’s full written testimony is available here; for more background on the topics at hand, check out this blog post.
You can watch the hearing live at 1 PM via the committee’s website, and as always, follow us on Twitter for live coverage.
2. Comments Pour In to FCC as Net Neutrality Deadline Nears
Back in May, the FCC solicited public feedback on its proposed rules. They’re asking big questions, such as: Should fast lanes be banned? Should broadband access be classified as a Title II common carrier? Should the new Open Internet provisions also cover wireless service?
Amazingly, over 600,000 comments have been submitted thus far, many of them from musicians and other creatives who depend on the internet’s level playing field to reach their audiences. Now artists like REM, OK Go, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Erin McKeown, Martín Perna of Antibalas, Rebecca Gates and many more have submitted comments that ask the FCC to give us real Net Neutrality, not the crummy watered down imitation that’s been proposed.
We music people know payola when we see it. And what we see in Chairman Wheeler’s proposal doesn’t give us any confidence that we won’t end up with an Internet where pay-to-play rules the day. We’ve heard this song before, and we’re frankly pretty tired of it.
We suppose there’s no harm in telling you again. But this time, we really hope you’ll listen. We may not be telecom lawyers, but we get this issue pretty clearly. You have the legal authority to prevent discrimination and paid prioritization online. You only need to exercise it.
Meanwhile, twenty arts and cultural organizations submitted their own filing, asking the FCC to adopt the strongest rules possible to prevent ISPs from picking winners and losers. Those organizations include:
Alternate ROOTS
Americans for the Arts
American Community Television
American Composers Forum
Association of American Arts Presenters
Chamber Music America
Chorus America
Dance/USA
Fractured Atlas
Future of Music Coalition
League of American Orchestras
National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture
National Alliance for Musical Theatre
National Performance Network
Network of Ensemble Theaters
New Music USA
OPERA America
Performing Arts Alliance
Theater Communications Group
Writers Guild of America West
And naturally, we’re in the mix too, with our own filing.
Ready to join the chorus? It’s not too late to submit your own comments! You can even simply email your thoughts to openinternet@fcc.gov by midnight Tuesday, July 15 and they’ll be counted as part of the official docket.
After Tuesday, a second comment period will open, this time offering you a chance to smack down the ISPs’ weaksauce anti-neutrality arguments, or just reiterate how the Open Internet impacts you personally. This second comment period will close Sept. 10.
3. Support FMC
Through all the thorny and complicated policy issues musicians face, we’re cutting through the noise to advance balanced artist-centric perspectives. Your donations, whether big or small, help keep us going. Make a tax-deductible gift today.
We’ll return with our regular newsletter (including the latest info on the 2014 Future of Music Policy Summit) later this week!
