Copyright Director: Time For Full Public Performance Right

Director of the US Copyright Office, Maria Pallante, says that it is past time for the US to recognize a "full public performance right for sound recordings," including bringing pre-1972 recordings under federal copyright protection. She also says it is time to make unauthorized online content streaming a felony, and to review anticircumvention exceptions. That is according to her testimony for a hearing in the House Judiciary Committee. The Copyright Office made that recommendation in a report in 2014, which also called for greater parity among competing platforms.

Music publishers argue that they are being seriously undercompensated for digital airplay on sites like Pandora . Earlier in April, Reps. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) and Ted Deutch (D-FL) introduced a bill that would create a public performance right (broadcasters call it a tax). Currently, broadcasters pay a blanket license to music rights groups, but argue that airplay is a fair exchange, and valuable compensation, for individual performances. It also creates, or attempts to according to its sponsors, cross-platform parity for payments through a "willing seller, willing buyer" standard judges could use to arbitrate rates, and requires royalty payments for some, but not all, pre-1972 recordings not currently recognized as getting compensation. Director Pallante also says changing the law to make it harder for online pirates to distribute content is "warranted and overdue."