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Published: 2015-08-05

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 9781332271054

Excerpt from Music Licensing and Small Business: Hearing Before the Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, Second Session, Washington, DC, May 8, 1996 The Committee met, pursuant to notice at 10 a.m., in room 2359, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Jan Meyers (Chair of the Committee) presiding. Chair Meyers. Good morning. The Committee will come to order. Today's hearing is our second in a series of hearings looking at intellectual property issues of importance to small business. The issues surrounding music licensing practices of the Performing Rights Societies, ASCAP, BMI, and SESAC, has long been a major concern for small businesses in the entertainment and retailing industry. The background music that we all hear when we're out at our favorite restaurant or local bar or a retail store is something that many people don't really think that much about. Today's hearing will change all that. Because how music is licensed and who pays for it, and how many times it is paid for, is going to surprise many of us. As many of you know, music licensing under the copyright laws and the antitrust consent decrees in effect with respect to ASCAP and BMI are issues that are within the legislative jurisdiction of the Committee on the Judiciary. However, the Committee on Small Business has a tradition of holding oversight hearings on issues of importance to small business. In fact, in 1957, during the 85th Congress, a Subcommittee of the Permanent Select Committee on Small Business of the U.S. House of Representatives held 5 days of investigative hearings on the practices of ASCAP. The record of those hearings covered over 700 printed pages; and as a result of those hearings, members of the Committee held an executive session with Representatives of the Department of Justice who took the matters presented at the Subcommittee hearings under consideration in their continuing enforcement of the 1950 consent decree against ASCAP. Today this issue of music licensing remains critical to many small businesses. For example, 92 percent of NFIB members have demanded music licensing reform legislation and are firmly behind H.R. 789, the Fairness in Music Licensing Act. This legislation was introduced by my colleague and friend, Jim Sensenbrenner, and I am proud to be a cosponsor. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.