Dear Supporter of Digital Freedom,
Copyright law is already too complicated and frustrating. We
need to tell Congress not to make it even more so.
The House of Representatives recently passed a bill that
combined the Music Modernization Act with the CLASSICS Act.
While the Music Modernization Act generally does a good job
of helping songwriters get paid for online streaming, the
CLASSICS Act simply creates new barriers for lovers of old
music. You can learn more here:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/03/music-modernization-act-good-solution-songwriters-dont-combine-it-bad-copyright
The Senate's version of this combined bill, S. 2823, was
recently introduced.
S. 2823 would extend some cherry-picked parts of federal
copyright to cover sound recordings made between 1923 and
1972, which are currently covered only by a patchwork of
state laws. It would force streaming services to get
licenses for those recordings, even though all that does is
create a new subsidy for rightsholders (which are usually
record labels and not artists) and make it harder for music
fans to listen to old recordings.
In the case of truly old recordings, finding the
rightsholder could be so difficult that recordings that hold
a mostly historical value would simply disappear from
streaming services, unless one wishes to chance an heir
showing up out of the woodwork, bringing a claim, and facing
massive, unpredictable copyright penalties in court.
There is no public benefit to this part of S. 2823, so tell
your senators to vote no on it by going here: https://act.eff.org/action/stop-another-expansion-of-copyright-tell-the-senate-to-vote-no-on-s-2823
Thank you,
Katharine Trendacosta
Activism Team
Electronic Frontier Foundation, 815 Eddy Street, San Francisco, CA 94109 USA EFF appreciates your support and respects your privacy: https://www.eff.org/policy Unsubscribe from all mailings: https://supporters.eff.org/civicrm/mailing/optout?reset=1&jid=59122&qid=84129061&h=64fb048f1bb0f752 Change your email preferences: https://supporters.eff.org/update-your-preferences?cid1=2061725&cs=22c4cc28245654bcb9a52f8ae3f611a5_1526335932_672