> In the last congress, songwriters supported the intent of HR.5553, The Section 115 Reform Act of 2006 (SIRA), which would provide for licensing of digital delivery of music; songwriter concerns in that bill were:

• An end to pass-through payments from record labels to music publishers/songwriters.
• An end to “controlled-compositions,” the practice of asking songwriters to accept a three-quarter rate payment, or less, for the use of their song. Songwriters went from 1909 to 1978 before receiving a pay raise from 1 cent to 2 cents! When songwriters received that meager adjustment “controlled composition” requirements began to flourish.
• Representation on entities designated to collect songwriter royalties.
• Creation of a workable dispute- resolution body.
• Timely payments with minimal collection fees.
• Transparency—access to collection history.

> We support The PERFORM Act, which addresses the emergence of new offerings from satellite and HD Radio that transform listening services into download services.
> We oppose the so-called FAIR USE act, which would erode protections that allow songwriters and music publishers to be fairly compensated for their intellectual property. We believe this bill would encourage piracy.
> Songwriters oppose the “Internet Radio Equality Act,” H.R. 20600, S 1353. This legislation contains provisions that would disallow performance royalties to be negotiated in the free market. Past history shows that other emerging technologies, including cable television and video rentals, made the same argument—that rates should be lower so they could compete. The industries became huge and the result was business models that are very unfair to the creators of music. Also, large corporations such as Clear Channel and Microsoft could end up being the biggest windfall financial beneficiaries.