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C3 Urges House Judiciary Leaders to Reject Music Transparency Legislation

House legislation aimed at making music licensing more transparent is a "one-sided approach that would fail to simplify" it, the Content Creators' Coalition wrote House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and ranking member John Conyers, D-Mich. C3, which urged the…

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committee to reject HR-3350 introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., in July (see 1707260009), is "deeply concerned about the bill's onerous registration system and financial penalty (forfeiture of statutory damages and attorneys' fees) for songwriters or publishers who fail to register their works in a new database, created and run by the government." Sensenbrenner's bill would direct the register of copyrights to create and maintain a searchable database of sound recordings, permitting businesses that want live music performed there to identify and pay copyright holders. C3 said Friday an IP right shouldn't be subject to forfeiture, nor should there be hurdles for creators "on pain of losing control." The coalition said there's support for the Fair Play Fair Pay and Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service and Important Contributions to Society acts (see 1707200012). The letter was signed by members of the c3 executive board, musicians Melvin Gibbs, John McCrea, Rosanne Cash, Tift Merritt and Matthew Montfort, Executive Director Jeffrey Boxer and artist manager Tommy Manzi.