(From The Hill) Since the days of the Old West and the mechanical “player piano” in the town’s saloon, the copyright system has been contorted and twisted beyond anything envisioned by the Founding Fathers. In the early 1900’s, the famous marching band leader John Phillips Sousa was so intimidated by competition from player pianos that he successfully convinced Congress to create a new royalty to protect composers from the evils of mechanical musicians. And the war on invention by the music industry continues to this day with the recent introduction of the “Songwriter Equity Act” (S. 2321) by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). With the addition of every new innovation the established music business has convinced Congress to stymie the new business — not by encouraging free competition, innovative services and better customer service — but with government regulation, miles of red tape and years of aggressive filings before sympathetic courts often stacked with cronies from the industry.
Posted on: Fri, 13 Jun 2014 07:36:58 +0000
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