NAB Reaches Deal With PROs on Music Modernization Act Concerns
NAB said Friday it reached agreement with the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations to resolve the broadcasting group's concerns with the Music Modernization Act. HR-4706/S-2334 was called a compromise supported by songwriters, music publishers and digital streaming services to…
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revamp elements of Copyright Act sections 114 and 115. The legislation would affect some rules on U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York handling of cases involving DOJ consent decrees governing the ASCAP and BMI performance rights organizations. House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., filed HR-4706 in December (see 1712210046). Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, filed S-2334 last week (see 1801240049). NAB opposed language affecting the ASCAP/BMI ratesetting process, including repeal of Section 114 language that bars the district court judges who oversee DOJ's consent decrees governing the two PROs from considering sound recording royalty rates as a relevant benchmark when setting performance royalty rates. NAB also opposed language that would allow ASCAP and BMI rate-setting disputes to be heard on a rotating basis by any Southern District of New York judge rather than requiring all cases to go before the PROs' assigned rate court judges -- Denise Cote for ASCAP and Louis Stanton for BMI. The new agreement on language for the bills “resolves NAB’s concerns with the potential introduction of new evidence into the ratesetting process while preserving ASCAP’s and BMI’s ability to seek meaningful compensation from the growing digital music marketplace,” the three groups announced. Collins' office told us HR-2706/2334 would still repeal some Section 114 language and will now “include language that alleviates” NAB's concerns. ASCAP and BMI “are on board with the update,” Collins' office said. The Songwriters Guild of America has opposed the bill (see 1712290025). The House Judiciary Committee held a field hearing in New York Friday that focused partly on HR-4706 (see 1801250051).