Monday, December 13, 2004
How The RIAA set it all up to begin with
The RIAA: Fox Guarding the Henhouse
By Lisa Rein (9/21/01)
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with its deep pockets and high-placed lobbyists, has hijacked the process and is setting up a world where the music industry fox guards the henhouse.
The RIAA is trying to convince Congress that it is capable of performing the duties of an objective agent for copyright holders. In November 2000, the RIAA created SoundExchange to function as a "collective" that would aggregate the royalties obtained from compulsory license fees and distribute them to artists. The U.S. Copyright Office is considering the RIAA's proposed rate structure based on the organization's claim that the 200 members of SoundExchange "own copyrights in approximately 90 percent of the legitimate sound recordings sold in the United States." Artists' rights organizations such as the FMC say that the RIAA and its agencies are not neutral parties in this arrangement and can't be trusted to fairly collect and disburse the royalties.
Corruption waiting to happen
The RIAA's petition proposed that SoundExchange would be able to deduct administrative costs from royalties--prior to paying them out to artists--without setting any limitations on these costs.
Artists would be required to foot the bill for any independent audits, and SoundExchange would be allowed to absorb any revenue from unclaimed royalties after only three years, despite the fact that the process for copyright holders claiming such royalties hasn't even been decided yet.
excerpted from:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5020594-1.html#lisa
By Lisa Rein (9/21/01)
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), with its deep pockets and high-placed lobbyists, has hijacked the process and is setting up a world where the music industry fox guards the henhouse.
The RIAA is trying to convince Congress that it is capable of performing the duties of an objective agent for copyright holders. In November 2000, the RIAA created SoundExchange to function as a "collective" that would aggregate the royalties obtained from compulsory license fees and distribute them to artists. The U.S. Copyright Office is considering the RIAA's proposed rate structure based on the organization's claim that the 200 members of SoundExchange "own copyrights in approximately 90 percent of the legitimate sound recordings sold in the United States." Artists' rights organizations such as the FMC say that the RIAA and its agencies are not neutral parties in this arrangement and can't be trusted to fairly collect and disburse the royalties.
Corruption waiting to happen
The RIAA's petition proposed that SoundExchange would be able to deduct administrative costs from royalties--prior to paying them out to artists--without setting any limitations on these costs.
Artists would be required to foot the bill for any independent audits, and SoundExchange would be allowed to absorb any revenue from unclaimed royalties after only three years, despite the fact that the process for copyright holders claiming such royalties hasn't even been decided yet.
excerpted from:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-5020594-1.html#lisa
