|
|
 |
|
|
|
Berman To Introduce Performance Right Bill
 WASHINGTON -- October 1, 2007: "I am confident that we can do this in a way that is sensitive to the legitimate concerns and economic realities of broadcasters," said Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) about his plan to introduce legislation giving artists and copyright owners a performance right in broadcast radio.
"My intention is to ensure that small and religious stations -- and, indeed, all stations -- will not be unduly burdened and that any new payment requirement will not be excessive," Berman said. "In fact, under the legislation that we are crafting, a large majority of all radio stations will receive special accommodations."
Berman, who chairs the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, the Courts, and the Internet, convened a subcommittee hearing in July at which artists Judy Collins and Sam Moore argued that a performance royalty for radio is a matter of "fairness and equity."
ICBC Broadcast Holdings President/COO Charles Warfield, who is Second Vice Chair of the NAB Radio Board, also spoke at the hearing, calling the royalty a "performance tax" and saying imposing it on radio "would be a shift of seismic proportions."
"I recognize that granting artists and sound-recording copyright owners the right to be compensated for music played on the radio represents a change," said Berman about the new bill, which he plans to introduce in October. "But current law presents an inequity that is neither fair nor right."
Comment on this story
E-mail this story to a friend
Sign up for Radio Headlines
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From the Publisher
|
|
|
