MusicTechPolicy readers will have seen my post about the interest rate paid by the MLC on the rather sizable black box of “unmatched” funds sitting at a bank account (rumored to be City National Bank in Nashville). That rate was modernized in the Music Modernization Act to be a floating rate: The Federal short term … Continue reading What to do with the MLC’s interest “float” on the black box?
There should be no cost-benefit trade off in meeting Congress’s mandate to the MLC.
Please take a few minutes (4 or so) to help us understand how the Mechanical Licensing Collective and the Copyright Office is doing getting the word out about signing up with the MLC and getting paid royalties (including your share of the $424 million black box/unmatched payment that has been sitting at MLC for months). … Continue reading Please take our Songwriter MLC Awareness Survey
“Reasonably diligent search” guidelines for orphan works shine a light on what is expected of streaming services hiding behind the MMA safe harbor giveaway.
One of the many U.S.-centric shortcomings of Title I of the Music Modernization Act (that created the Mechanical Licensing Collective, the safe harbor giveaway and the blanket license) is that it pretty much ignores the entire complex system of content management organizations outside the U.S. As they describe themselves, “CISAC and BIEM are international organisations … Continue reading The World is not Flat: @CISACNews and BIEM Focus on Vendor Lock-in at the MLC
Would you think you could create a database of every acorn on every black oak in Yosemite? No? Then why a database of every song ever written or that may ever be written?
Even though they have a long history, Presidential Signing Statements are not exactly front and center in every civics class or constitutional public law class in America. You may be hearing about them for the first time now. But that doesn’t mean they have not been an important part of Constitutional law-making and jurisprudence. Presidential … Continue reading Defiance or Collaboration? The Role of the Presidential Signing Statement in MLC Board Appointments
Congress mandates the Copyright Office review the performance of the Mechanical Licensing Collective and the Digital Licensee Coordinator every 5 years–if the Copyright Office makes a nonexhaustive list of qualities that constitute a successful completion of the five year trial period at the beginning of that period rather than the end, it might make succesful completion more likely.
The “risk free rate” is often thought of as the rate of interest paid on US government bonds. That interest rate is thought of as risk free because it is backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. Want to know where you can find that full faith and credit? Look in … Continue reading Unrealized Losses and the Black Box Investment Policy
Spotify has a major ESG problem–will anyone on Wall Street find out? A companion to my MusicAnswers podcast interview.
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