Should we protect the rights of sound and music creators?

Government Operations (e.g., Election Laws)
Music Modernization Act (H.R. 5447)
This bill has Passed the House of Representatives
Bill Summary

This bill would create protections for sound recording/creation rights and provide an overall license for digital streamers. The compromise at the heart of the bill is to provide a legal shield for companies like Spotify from lawsuits and large settlements. This bill creates the Mechanical Licensing Collective - at the expense of digital music providers - that will create a comprehensive, public database with information on songwriters' work, which tech companies will then use to pay songwriters. The bill also addresses the rates songwriters are paid. (Interesting tidbit: Renamed the Orrin G. Hatch Music Modernization Act at the 23rd hour — in honor of the retiring Utah politician who also happens himself to own a platinum record.) Sponsor: Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Republican-Virginia-District 6).
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Opponents say

• “Earlier, Sirius XM’s CEO, Jim Meyer, criticized the bill for expanding the royalty requirements for satellite radio without also expanding the requirements for terrestrial radio.” - Paul Resnikoff, Founder and Publisher of Digital Music News.
• “Bogan [Dae Bogan, who met with the Congressional Budget Office] added that "plenty of music industry professionals" have limited knowledge of these issues and how they work, so the government's speedy approach isn't rare, but is still not a good foundation to build a law on.” - Stephen Silver, writer at Apple Insider.
• “SiriusXM has asked that the CLASSICS Act recognize that it has already licensed all of the pre-1972 works it uses...To date, SiriusXM has paid nearly $250 million dollars in pre-72 royalties to the record labels. We want to make sure that a fair share of the monies we have paid, and will pay, under these licenses gets to performers. ” - SiriusXM’s letter detailing three requested amendments to Music Modernization Act.

Proponents say

• “We are proud that the legislative solution [H.R.5447] approved by the House includes provisions from the CLASSICS Act, which guarantees federal copyright protection for artists who recorded music before 1972. If passed, this development will ensure that these creators finally receive compensation for their work from every state in the Union.” - Michael Huppe, SoundExchange President and CEO.
• “...at the end of the day, we were trying to ensure that libraries and nonprofit users are protected, and also that there’s a robust public domain in these legacy recordings.” - Meredith Rose, Policy Counsel for Public Knowledge.
• “The Music Modernization Act mandates a public database...which would allow other applications to query and inform the data, thus resulting in increased matching between artists and their royalty payments. ” - Roger H. Brown, Berklee President.
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