American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) executives and members lobbied on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a revamp of music licensing laws, particularly those that affect its 1941 consent decree with the DOJ. Justice is reviewing both its ASCAP and Broadcast Music, Inc., consent decrees. ASCAP and DOJ also recently reached a proposed settlement that would end the department's investigation into whether ASCAP violated its consent decree by signing 150 exclusive contract (see 1605120049). ASCAP believes the U.S. District Court in New York will rule by mid-June on the proposed settlement, which “makes us more optimistic that the DOJ will be able to focus on our specific request” for an update to the PRO's consent decree, said CEO Elizabeth Matthews in an interview. “They wanted to get these issues out of the way first.” The rules that ASCAP operates under “are terribly outdated and we're working with [DOJ] to get them updated,” ASCAP President Paul Williams told us. “What we want from the Hill is for them to understand that the way the consent decree is scripted is absolutely broken.” ASCAP is processing “a huge amount” of royalty requests but “the value of music has come down,” Williams said. “It needs to come back up, and one of the ways we want to do that” is to seek a revamp of rules for the Copyright Royalty Board, which ASCAP and other performing rights organizations use to settle licensing disputes, via the Songwriter Equity Act (HR-1283/S-662). The bill would amend Sections 114 and 115 of the Copyright Act to allow the CRB to consider “all relevant evidence” when determining royalty rates and would change the rate standard for mechanical royalties. BMI, NMPA, Recording Academy and several conservative groups have strongly backed HR-1283/S-662 since Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House IP Subcommittee Vice Chairman Doug Collins, R-Ga., reintroduced the bill last year.
The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies unanimously advanced its $56 billion FY 2017 budget (see 1605170018) to the full committee Wednesday after a markup. The subcommittee didn't add any amendments to the budget during its markup, but retained a rider from the Department of Commerce's two previous budgets that bars NTIA from using its funding on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition. The proposed extension of the IANA transition rider already provoked criticism from some House Democrats. Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is planning to ask NTIA to delay the IANA transition ahead of a planned Senate Commerce Committee hearing.
The Department of Commerce’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors (DEBA) will kick off its work by examining possible digital economy metrics to inform policymaking, along with how to improve U.S. workers’ skills to adapt to the growth of digitization and ways to close the “digital divide” between small and large businesses, DEBA leaders said Monday. Commerce formed DEBA in November as part of the department’s Digital Economy Agenda to encourage growth in the digital economy by promoting Internet freedom, ensuring users’ access to the Internet and promoting trust in online services. DEBA will provide recommendations to the secretary of commerce and the NTIA administrator on policy issues (see 1511240034).
Discussions at the Copyright Office’s San Francisco roundtable last week on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s Section 512 appear to largely be cementing expectations that the CO will favor nonlegislative fixes -- particularly voluntary measures -- to address problems with the statute, meeting participants said in interviews. The CO held the San Francisco session and another in New York earlier this month to collect input on the office’s study of Section 512’s notice-and-takedown process and safe harbors. The CO also plans to seek additional comments after the meetings to drill down on issues raised during the roundtables and in initial comments on the study, though it’s unclear how valuable additional comments will be, participants said. Both workshops were open to the public but seating was limited. The CO didn't webcast either roundtable.
House IP Subcommittee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., committed Wednesday to strongly urging House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., to include the Fair Play Fair Pay Act (HR-1733) among his top copyright legislative priorities, telling us he wants to make sure HR-1733 is “considered as a must-include” bill. Goodlatte is expected to soon identify which parts of the House Judiciary's Copyright Act review he believes have sufficient consensus support to warrant becoming a legislative priority (see 1604260062). Issa said during a musicFIRST Coalition news conference that a copyright revamp must "tear out legacy provisions that stop creators from getting fair compensation." MusicFIRST members met with Goodlatte, Issa and 28 other House Judiciary and Senate Judiciary Committee members Wednesday to lobby in favor of HR-1733 and other music licensing issues.
The U.S. and other strong supporters of multistakeholder Internet governance must engage with a “diverse set of voices” on governance issues to prevent Internet fragmentation, said State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary-Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Daniel Sepulveda during an Internet Society event Tuesday. Fragmentation “would constitute a grave threat” to the Internet's potential to encourage innovation and economic development globally, Sepulveda said. The Internet's track record in fostering economic and social development is a “development that's worth preserving,” he said. Recent developments at the U.N.'s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum in Geneva and other Internet governance forums indicate global support for multistakeholderism is strengthening, Internet governance stakeholders said in interviews.
The Senate Commerce Committee plans a hearing later this month on the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) transition, renewing the committee’s oversight of IANA at a key point in the transition process, multiple lobbyists said in interviews. Senate Commerce is aiming to hold the hearing May 24 but is still finalizing details, lobbyists said. The Senate Commerce hearing will mirror a March House Communications Subcommittee hearing on the IANA transition, focusing on the perspectives of private-sector ICANN stakeholders, but will include parties who have been skeptical about the transition, lobbyists said. House Communications members said during their hearing they're increasingly at ease with the trajectory of the IANA transition, while ICANN stakeholders strongly endorsed ICANN’s transition-related plans (see 1603170051). A Senate Commerce spokesman said he couldn’t confirm the committee’s plans.
SoundExchange remains the likeliest party in the Copyright Royalty Board’s 2016-20 noninteractive webcasting rate-setting proceeding to appeal the CRB’s ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but other parties may also consider a challenge, music industry lawyers said in interviews. The CRB released a final version of its decision on noninteractive webcasters’ royalty payments in Monday’s Federal Register, starting the 30-day clock for parties in the proceeding to appeal the decision to the D.C. Circuit (see 1605020058). The CRB’s final ruling kept intact the rates it set in December -- 0.17 cent per performance on nonsubscription services and 0.22 cent per performance on subscription services (see 1512170063). The final ruling didn’t substantially change from a preliminary full determination the CRB released in February (see 1602120058).
Copyright Office officials appeared to be searching for nonlegislative fixes to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s Section 512, during a New York roundtable this week, but stakeholders failed to coalesce around any particular solution, participants in the roundtable said in interviews. The CO held the roundtable to collect stakeholder input on the office’s study of Section 512’s notice-and-takedown process and safe harbors. The office plans a second session May 12-13 at the James Browning U.S. Court of Appeals Building in San Francisco.
The U.S. has made substantial progress in adopting Europay, MasterCard and Visa-standard (EMV) chip technology in credit cards and debit cards since the payments industry shifted liability for fraudulent charges Oct. 1 to merchants not using chip technology, but financial services and consumer protection groups said Tuesday the transition is far from complete. The U.S. is now the largest user of EMV technology globally despite most European countries having a substantial head start in adopting the technology, said White House National Economic Council Policy Adviser Camille Fischer during a Protect My Data event. She credited the White House-led BuySecure initiative, which led to the issuance of 2.5 million EMV-enabled cards linked to government accounts, for driving strong U.S. adoption of the technology. Merchant adoption of EMV-capable terminals “has been a longer process” than anticipated, Fischer said.