Songwriters Notes

Information for San Diego Songwriting community.

6/22/2005

A Special Message from ASCAP President Marilyn Bergman

Songwriters and composers are the people without whom the entire digital music industry would not exist. Without us, there are no lyrics or melodies to stream, download or trade. Without our music -- the music our fans want to listen to with the same passion we bring to the writing process -- there would be no reason for the new technology to exist, whether it be an iPod or a P2P enterprise.

The future of musical creativity depends upon strong copyright laws, those laws that enable us to make a living from our creative work. Yet, some of the business and technology interests that rely on our work for their business models are trying to weaken copyright laws.

Why are they doing this? Simple. They want to build their businesses - and their profits - by getting our music for free or for as little as possible. And you can bet that they have no intention of passing on the notion of "free" to their advertisers or consumers, our music fans.

What amazes me is how the technology interests and some misguided academics who support them, are trying to dupe creators with a campaign of total misinformation. They are trying to convince us that giving our music away to enterprises who plan to make a profit from our music is somehow in our best interest.

As creators and communicators, we have to call their bluff and redefine the terms of the policy debates. When they say, "content," remind them it's "our music." When the enemies of copyright say, "file sharing," ask them when "stealing" became "sharing." When they say we have to "balance" copyright with the "public interest," remind them that creators and the public are on the same page. Remind them what James Madison, the father of our Constitution, wrote about copyright protection: the property rights of creators and the public interest "fully coincide." It is those who want to exploit our creative property for their own profit with whom we take issue.

As songwriters and composers, we have to be wary of the well-spoken hucksters out there trying to trick us out of the most fundamental right we have, the right to control the uses of our own work, and the right to be fairly paid for those uses.

You all know that the Supreme Court is now considering one of the most important copyright cases to come before it in years - the Grokster case that will decide if P2P enterprises like Grokster and Kazaa are liable for copyright infringement. Our hope is that the Court will say, as Justice Kennedy noted at the oral argument of the case, that these profit-making enterprises cannot use our intellectual property as start-up capital for their businesses.

I hope you are proud that ASCAP led the way in filing friend-of-the-Court briefs supporting the copyright owner plaintiffs in that case. We should have the Court's decision any day now.

Whatever the outcome, we must raise our own voices in defense of our own rights, especially at this crucial time when there is such heated interest in Congress and in the Courts about copyright protection and efforts are being made in Congress to undermine our rights and our livelihoods.

I hope you will help ASCAP to convey the right message to our lawmakers. Your future and that of all your fellow music creators depends on it, whether you are a new writer just starting out, or one of the most successful in your field. As music creators, we have the most to lose from an erosion of copyright protection. ASCAP will remain a strong leader in protecting your right to control your copyrights.

In the coming weeks, we will be informing you of specific developments and asking for your help in reaching out to members of Congress with our message to protect the rights of songwriters and composers. Together, we can make our voices heard.

Click here to read ASCAP's Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court: www.ascap.com/new/ASCAPgrokster.pdf

posted by San Diego Songwriter's Guild # 6:08 AM

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A Special Message from ASCAP President Marilyn Bergman

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