James A. Rose

This edition of the James Rose Blog About Law is focused on the general scope of compulsory licensing of sound recordings and the major changes that stemmed from the Music Modernization Act ("MMA") signed into law by President Trump in October of 2018. Section 115 of the Copyright Act of 1978 is the statute for this short blog analysis.  Parts of it are already well known.  A compulsory license may be obtained only if the primary purpose is to distribute the musical work to the public for private use.  The sound recording must be fixed lawfully in a material object known in the legal world as a phonorecord with distribution authorized by the owner of the copyright before another person may obtain a compulsory license. An important component of the MMA is the requirements of record keeping.  The copyright owner must  identify himself or herself in a registration or other public records of the copyright office.  This is an important point of detail f...

Spotify reporting its first operating profit.   A new significant amendment to copyright law in the fall of 2018.   New rate determinations and posturing on both sides of the publisher/writer versus digital services debate.   From a legal perspective, these are intriguing times in this business of music we love. The Bluewater Music Services Corporation vs. Spotify, Inc. action currently in the midst of discovery in the U.S. District Court – Middle District of Tennessee and set to go to trial in January of 2020 serves as a snapshot of the ongoing debate regarding music publishing royalties and the current position of stakeholders in the process. An article written by Marc Schneider and published in Billboard Biz on February 6, 2019, reports that Spotify scored its first operating profit in the fourth quarter of 2018.   The company which began in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2005 now streams to 78 countries and plans to expand to India.   It reports double-d...

If you're anywhere close to the music industry, you have no doubt heard some buzz since President Trump signed the Orrin G. Hatch - Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act ("MMA") into law on October 11, 2018. As you might expect, the exact course of implementation has yet to be determined. And there are some new positions of influence that have yet to be filled. But we are aware of the amendments to the federal copyright code. To begin full explanation of the MMA, it is helpful to review other parts of copyright law that were already in place prior to the MMA becoming law. If you own a copyrighted work, you have certain exclusive rights associated with it. Four such rights are important when considering the rights associated with sound recordings  (as opposed to the musical compositions that are contained in such recordings): To reproduce the work in copies or in material objects known legally as phonorecords. To produce a derivative work based on the original ...