Performance Rights Act

Bill: 111-hr-848
Sponsor: Rep. Conyers, John, Jr. [D-MI-14]
Introduced: 2009-02-04 in the House
Policy area: Commerce
Subjects: Art, artists, authorship
Broadcasting, cable, digital technologies
Intellectual property
Licensing and registrations
Minority and disadvantaged businesses
Music
Performing arts
Religion
Small business
Sound recording
User charges and fees
Women in business

Summary:
action_date: 2009-02-04
text: 
Performance Rights Act - Amends federal copyright law to: (1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters; (2) establish a flat annual fee in lieu of payment of royalties for individual terrestrial broadcast stations with gross revenues of less than $1.25 million and for noncommercial, public broadcast stations; (3) grant an exemption from royalty payments for broadcasts of religious services and for incidental uses of musical sound recordings; and (4) grant terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings a per program license option.
 
Prohibits taking into account license fees payable for public performance via digital audio transmission of sound recordings in any proceeding to set or adjust the license fees for the purpose of reducing or adversely affecting such license fees. (Current law prohibits taking those fees into account in such a proceeding without referencing the purpose.)
 
Prohibits anything in this Act from adversely affecting the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works.
 
 Prohibits taking into account the rates established by the Copyright Royalty Judges in any proceeding to reduce or adversely affect the license fees payable for public performances by terrestrial broadcast stations. Requires that such license fees for the public performance of musical works be independent of license fees paid for the public performance of sound recordings.
 
Revises provisions relating to proceeds from the licensing of transmissions.

action_date: 2010-12-14
text: 
Performance Rights Act - (Sec. 2) Amends federal copyright law to: (1) grant performers of sound recordings equal rights to compensation from terrestrial broadcasters (AM and FM radio); and (2) modify the circumstances under which the public performance of a sound recording is subject to statutory licensing. 
 
(Sec. 3) Establishes separate annual flat fees in lieu of royalty payments for certain minority, female, religious, rural, small, noncommercial, public, educational, and community terrestrial broadcast stations that have annual revenues falling within corresponding separate specified ranges. 
 
Prohibits such annual fees from being taken into account in any Copyright Royalty Board rate-setting proceeding or in any other federal government proceeding.
 
Includes broadcasts of religious services and incidental uses of musical sound recordings publicly by digital audio transmission among performances of a sound recording that are not copyright infringements.
 
(Sec. 4) Provides a per program license option for terrestrial broadcast stations that make limited feature uses of sound recordings.
 
(Sec. 5) Prohibits: (1) license fees payable for the public performance of sound recordings from being used in any governmental proceeding to set the license fees payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works to adversely affect such license fees; (2) a licensee of a sound recording from publicly performing such sound recording unless a license has been granted for the public performance of any copyrighted musical work contained in the sound recording; (3) anything in this Act from adversely affecting the public performance rights or royalties payable to songwriters or copyright owners of musical works; and (4) rates established by the Copyright Royalty Judges for the public performance of sound recordings from being used in any governmental proceeding to adversely affect license fees payable to copyright owners of musical works for the public performance of their works by terrestrial broadcast stations. 
 
(Sec. 6) Entitles a featured recording artist who performs on a sound recording that has been licensed for public performance by means of an audio transmission to payments from the sound recording's copyright owner in accordance with the terms of the artist's contract. 
 
Requires: (1) sound recording copyright owners to deposit 1% of the receipts from their licensing of public performance rights by means of an audio transmission into the American Federation of Musicians and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund for distribution to nonfeatured performers who have performed on sound recordings; and (2) the Fund to pay 50% to nonfeatured musicians and 50% to nonfeatured vocalists.
 
(Sec. 7) Prohibits a broadcaster's payment of royalties on underlying works publicly performed by terrestrial broadcast stations from affecting that broadcaster's public interest obligations to its local community under the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regulations related to radio broadcast services.
 
(Sec. 8) Directs copyright royalty judges making determinations or adjustments of rates and terms of copyright royalty payments for public performances of sound recordings, to consider the effect of such rates and terms on: (1) religious, minority-owned, female-owned, small, and noncommercial broadcasters; (2) non-music programming, including local news and information programming for stations that are part of station groups located in one designated market area; and (3) religious, minority or minority-owned, and female or female-owned royalty recipients.


Legislative actions:
action_date: 2010-12-14
text: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 405.
action_date: 2010-12-14
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Judiciary. H. Rept. 111-680.
action_date: 2010-12-14
text: Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Judiciary. H. Rept. 111-680.
action_date: 2009-05-13
text: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 21 - 9.
action_date: 2009-05-13
text: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.
action_date: 2009-03-10
text: Committee Hearings Held.
action_date: 2009-02-04
text: Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
action_date: 2009-02-04
text: Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR E202-203)
action_date: 2009-02-04
text: Introduced in House
action_date: 2009-02-04
text: Introduced in House