Re: [Harp-L] Re: ASCAP Lawsuits

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

D Baker wrote:
> Are ASCAP members' material automatically licensed or is it allowable to 
> choose their license for specific titles, so that some material could be 
> licensed under the "Creative Commons License"?

Automatic.  No pick-and-choose, really.  It's a "blanket" license.  Now, if 
someone wants to use your song so that is is synchronized into a movie or 
TV show soundtrack, that is an entirely different thing.  If you don't want 
to sell someone a synch license, that's your business.

If you're a member of a performance rights organization (PRO) such as ASCAP 
or BMI, and you write a song but it hasn't been registered with your PRO 
yet, it isn't covered by the blanket license, but you won't make any 
performance royalties if someone happens to perform it

Remember, ASCAP and BMI license for performance of copyright 
material.  They have nothing to do with so-called "mechanical" licenses, 
meaning licenses where the songwriter gets paid for sales of recordings.

There, the copyright holder has a one-time right to choose who gets to 
record the song first.  After the first recording, the copyright holder is 
required by law to grant what is called a 'compulsory license' to anyone 
who requests it.  Of course that person must request it formally, in 
writing.  And of course all royalties from sales must be paid or there is 
hell to pay instead.

The compulsory license was enacted in 1909 because the publishers and 
songwriters were getting alot of power in the 1909 copyright law, and it 
was felt that if they could withhold the right to record or perform a song 
after it was already popular they would have a little too much power for 
the burgeoning record companies to stomach.  (Thomas Edison, who knew a 
thing or two about controlling legislation, owned what was probably the 
biggest record company of its time.)