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https://fossforce.com/2019/04/whats-wrong-with-the-music-modernization-act/
Pretty much everyone in the music industry agreed that the rate setting process for both mechanical and streaming royalties was antiquated. Having a central location for storing publishing and master ownership information for all recordings — as well as for obtaining digital mechanical licenses — would be ideal. There also needed to be payments to heritage artists whose music is broadcast on satellite services, and a clear system for paying producers and engineers for their share of the master recording income derived from performance.
The MMA promised all that and more. The changes it brought about, however, came with a price.
The Music Modernization Act: What Is It & Why Does It Matter?
The Music Modernization act, or "MMA" creates a formalized body, run by publishers, that administers the "mechanical licensing" of compositions streamed on services like Spotify and Apple Music (we call them DSPs). It changes the procedure by which millions of songs are made available for streaming on these services and limits the liability a service can incur if it adheres to the new process. It funds the creation of a comprehensive database with buy in from all the major publishers and digital service providers. This would be the first of its kind that has active participation from the major publishers, representing a vast majority of musical works. It also creates a new evidentiary standard by which the performance rights organizations ASCAP and BMI can argue better rates for the performance of musical works on DSPs.
[...] There will be meaningful criticism of this bill. But at the end of the day, this is a good thing for our business. A consensus amongst the music community and agreement with the DSPs. Two notions that, before this bill, lived in the realm of fantasy. And a real nuts and bolts solution to, what a year ago, seemed to be an insurmountable obstacle.
So how about it fellow Soylentils? What do you think about this proposal?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday April 24 2019, @07:56PM (1 child)
If it isn't reducing copyright terms, it's not Modernization.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:51PM
It has become standard practice to name laws the polar opposite of what they really do, in order to deceive the public. For instance, the "Right to Work", the "Tax Cut and Jobs Act", and the "Affordable Care Act".
At best, the names can be considered aspirational. As you say, there's nothing "modern" about this act. Quite the opposite. It's another lame attempt to prop up the extremely obsolete notion of copyright, another refusal to acknowledge that the world has changed and the clock can't be turned back. That they felt the need to work "modernization" into the name is a backhanded acknowledgment that copyright is indeed outmoded. In that sense it's the most honest part of the name.