This Royalty Gets Disconnected In Court…

Monday, October, 19, 2009 by Mel Phillips.

Lost in the buzz of last week’s Performance Royalty Act-ion was the ruling handed down by a federal judge who hung up on ASCAP’s suit against AT&T. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers alleged that each time a musical ringtone went off in public, the mobile phone melody constituted a performance and violated copyright law. U.S. District Judge Denise Cote didn’t buy the allegation. Judge Cote said ringtones played in public do not infringe on copyrights. The good judge added that mobile operators retain no control over when ringtones are played by subscribers and earn no additional revenue during playback. “Even if the customer could listen to the download as it was being received, and contemporaneously perceive it as the musical work, that would not constitute a public performance” wrote Cote. We like this judge, can we get her to mediate the Performance Royalty Act mess in Congress???

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit advocacy and legal organization that is pleased by the ruling or as senior staff attorney Fred von Lohmann puts it, “the ruling is an important victory for consumers, making it clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright.” The key to the court ruling was this: “customers do not play ringtones with any expectation of profit”…

This ruling is a victory for everyone. The ruling should protect consumers who roll down their car windows with the radio on, those who take a radio to the beach and it may sound silly but it also protects those who sing “Happy Birthday” in public. Doesn’t it make you want to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ at the top of your lungs when you go out today???  

10 Timeline Memories:

1. 1873] Football rules: Yale, Princeton, Columbia and Rutgers universities draft the first code of American football rules. Rule number one: outscore your opponent…
2. 1960] Cuba banned: The United States imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba. All that stuff is about to go by the wayside - a good thing especially if it means getting Cuban cigars…
3. 1969] Effete feat: VP Spiro T. Agnew calls anti-Vietnam protesters “an effete corps of impudent snobs” which is better than a “nattering nabobs of negativism” I think…
4. 1973] Tapes, what tapes?: President Richard Nixon rejects an Appeals Court demand to turn over the Watergate tapes…
5. 1977] Psst, it’s the SST: The supersonic Concorde makes its first landing in New York City, shattering windows at Archie Bunker’s house…
6. 1987] Stock market crash: The Dow Jones plunges 508 points or 22.6 percent, its second biggest percentage drop…
7. 2002] Washington sniper strikes again: A 37-year old man is seriously wounded outside a steakhouse in Ashland (VA) in the latest attack by the Washington-area sniper…
8. 2004] The bloody sock: Curt Schilling, bloody sock and all, pitches the Red Sox to a 4-2 win over the Yankees, setting up a winner-take-all game 7 for the ALCS showdown. The Sox win the World Series that year…
9. 2004] Baghdad bullies strike: Insurgents in Iraq abduct Margaret Hassan, the local director of CARE International from her car in Baghdad. Hassan is later murdered by her captors…
10. 2005] Defiant till the end: Saddam Hussein pleads innocent to charges of premeditated murder and torture at his trial in Baghdad…

Music Memories:

• 1969] Number One on this date: “I Can’t Get Next To You” - Temptations…1986] “True Colors” - Cyndi Lauper…
• 1973] Released on this date: “Photograph” - Ringo Starr…

Commentary:

Jon Luther, Exec. Chairman of Dunkin Brands, John Esposito, Pres. and CEO of WEA Corp. and Bruce Lundvall, Pres. of Blue Note Records, will all be honored at the 34th Annual Awards Gala of the T.J. Martell Foundation on Wednesday, October 28th. Entertainment will be provided by Willie Nelson, Dianne Reeves and Celtic Woman. For further information: tjmartellfoundation.org or 212-833-5444…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“: Chris Kattan (39), Amy Carter (42), Ty Pennington (44), Evander Holyfield (47), Jeannie C. Riley (64), John Lithgow (64), Peter Max (72) and John le Carre (78)…

Timeline Countdown: 9 days until the World Series opener, 12 nights until Halloween and 13 nights until Standard Time (back one hour)…

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