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Flo & Eddie v. Sirius XM – The Other Shoe Drops on the East Coast

Flo & Eddie v. Sirius XM – The Other Shoe Drops on the East Coast

On October 22nd I wrote a detailed post discussing Flo & Eddie’s (owner of the Turtles’ pre-1972 sound recordings) suit against Sirius XM, and specifically the holding of a California federal district court that Sirius’s satellite radio broadcast and webcasting of these recordings was subject to a claim under California state law. (See The Kerfuffle Over Copyrights in Pre-1972 Sound Recordings). As I noted in that post, when sound recordings were added to the federal Copyright Act in 1972 pre-1972 sound recordings were not included – these works were not preempted by the federal copyright statute, and were left to be regulated under state law until (drum roll ….) 2067.

I also mentioned that Flo & Eddie had a separate case pending in federal court in New York, claiming copyright infringement of their pre-1972 recordings under New York common law.

On November 14, 2014, the federal judge handling the New York case issued a decision similar to that reached by the court in California. Although, unlike California, New York does not have a specific statute that protects the public performance right in pre-1972 sound recordings, the court upheld Flo & Eddie’s suit under pre-1972 New York state copyright common law, which protects “any original material product of intellectual labor” in which the artist invests “time, effort, money, and great skill.” Clearly, a great deal of pre-1972 music satisfies that test.

The court rejected Sirius XM’s arguments that (i) the owners of pre-1972 sound recordings lacked an exclusive right to the public performance of those works, (ii) Sirius’s broadcast of the recordings is protected by fair use, (iii) upholding Flo & Eddie’s claims would violate the Commerce Clause, and (iv) Flo & Eddie’s claims were barred by laches.

This is very bad news for Sirius XM. One decision against Sirius on this issue is bad; two may prove catastrophic.

After the California decision was issued commentators asked why the court’s ruling wouldn’t apply with equal force to analog broadcasters (radio and TV stations) and retail businesses that play music, such as bars, restaurants and stores. This decision makes that question even more pressing – not only does a second federal court decision upholding pre-1972 state law copyright rights validate the first case (making it less likely to be an outlier), but it forces legal advisors to ask how non-digital businesses are any different than satellite radio or webcasting for purposes of analyzing this legal issue. Why would the logic of the two Sirius XM cases not apply to them as well?

It’s the case that these decisions create more questions than answers. For example, assuming the decisions survive appeal, the courts may have a difficult time arriving at a measure of damages. Since the recordings are not covered by the Copyright Act, statutory damages are not available, and “actual” damages are an open question. Flo & Eddie may have a difficult time proving it lost any sales as a result of the infringements (in fact, it may have gained sales from the exposure). And, it will be difficult to determine the extent to which Sirius XM profited by playing them, or how to determine a “reasonable royalty” for a license to play them that’s any different from the compulsory license established by the Copyright Royalty Board for post-1972 sound recordings. Things are further complicated by the fact that both the New York and California cases are styled as class actions, and are seeking damages on behalf of all owners of pre-1972 sound recordings that have been broadcast by Sirius.

In the meantime, this decision should add to the pressure on Congress to clean up this mess by amending the copyright statute on pre-1972 sound recordings. Leaving them to be regulated by state law for another 53 years, until 2067, may have made sense in the early ’70s’s but it makes no sense now, especially in light of these cases. As the district court judge in the New York case stated, the enforcement of common law copyrights by the states raises “the specter of administrative difficulties in the imposition and collection of royalties,” and could “possibly make broadcasts of pre-1972 recordings altogether unavailable.” In other words, broadcasts of music by The Beatles, The Doors, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin (to name just a few) could disappear altogether from satellite broadcasters and webcasters like Sirius and Pandora, as well as from traditional radio stations.

Legislation like the RESPECT bill that was introduced in the House in May, and which was referred to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet in July, could resolve this issue, at least moving forward.

If these cases are not reversed or a law like RESPECT is not enacted, we are likely to hear a lot less pre-1972 music for the next five decades. And that would be everyone’s loss.

The Music Licensing Marketplace is Not for the Faint of Heart

Over the last 100 years the musical licensing business has evolved into a complicated system! This is a consequence of the evolution of technology, business practices and copyright laws. A picture is worth a thousand words, and I’ve been meaning to post this attempt by the U.S. Copyright Office to create a graphic that illustrates how music licensing operates. The copyright office published this graphic earlier this year, as part of its Musical Licensing Study – one of three active policy studies in progress at the Copyright Office. Click on the image to expand it.

Music Licensing Chart

 

Here is Professor Fisher’s attempt to illustrate some of this in his 2014 CopyrightX course. This is a screenshot at approximately 11:00 in this CopyrightX video.

 

Screen Shot 2014-11-09 at 1.00.58 AM

 

EU and UK Liberalize Access to Orphan Works – When Will the U.S. Catch Up?

EU and UK Liberalize Access to Orphan Works – When Will the U.S. Catch Up?

One of the thorniest issues under the present U.S. copyright system is the law’s failure to accommodate the problem of  “orphan works” – works whose owners can’t be identified or located. In many cases copyright holders have died, gone out of business or simply stopped caring. This makes it difficult or impossible to obtain terms for the use of works that likely represent the majority of 20th century cultural artifacts, including songs, pictures, films, books, magazines and newspapers.

Mass digitization technologies and the Internet have created opportunities to make these works widely accessible, but they have also created risks for copyright owners – for example, many digital photos that should be protected have had their metadata stripped before being posted on the Internet, creating a risk that protected works may be mistakenly misclassified as orphans.

No one knows for sure how many bona fide orphan works there are, but estimates range between 25%  and 40% of all books eligible for copyright. The number seems to be particularly high in library and archive collections.

However, because copyright protection has become “automatic” (no notice or registration required) and the term more difficult to ascertain (life-of-the-author-plus-70-years – when did the author die?), the user of an orphan work risks an infringement action. This is the risk that Google Books encountered in its attempt at mass digitization of books. Google had hoped it had found a solution to this problem when, in the context of a class-action copyright infringement suit, it proposed a settlement that would have allowed Google to provide digital access to entire books (including orphan works), subject to the right of a copyright owner to “opt out.” However, the court rejected a settlement that was based on an opt-out system, and as a result Google currently restricts orphan works to “snippet views”.

In other words, there is a huge volume of published and unpublished material, some of it dating back as far as 1923, which may technically be subject to copyright protection in the U.S., but which is unavailable to the public, despite the fact that copyright owners would have no objection to it being used.*

*note:Before the 1976 Copyright Act, when the law required copyright owners to renew their their copyright registrations after 28 years to obtain a second 28 year term, only 15% of registrations were renewed. The unrenewed 85% entered the public domain. (Copyright Law Revision, Studies 29-31, p. 221)

The U.S. Copyright Office has recognized that there is tremendous social value in making orphan works available to the public, even on a restricted basis. In 2006 the Copyright Office issued a “Report on Orphan Works,” in which it explored the issue in depth and proposed that Congress enact legislation that would reduce the risk of digitizing orphan works by limiting the remedies available against good faith users.  (See also Marybeth Peters, The Importance of Orphan Works Legislation (2008)).

Legislation that would have made orphan works more accessible under U.S. copyright law was proposed in 2006 and 2008 (1, 2), but was not enacted.*

*note: In 2012 the Copyright Office continued to focus on orphan works, issuing a Notice of Inquiry requesting public comments. The Internet Policy Task Force urged reexamination of this issue in the July 2013 “Green Paper.”

However, each country has its own copyright laws, and the situation in some countries is not as grim as it is here. In addition to several non-EU individual country solutions, in October 2012 the EU adopted an Orphan Works Directive, to be implemented by the 28 member states by October 29, 2014 (although that implementation seems to be behind schedule in many countries). The Directive allows public interest entities* to make limited use of specified categories of orphan works “only in order to achieve aims related to their public-interest missions, in particular the preservation of, the restoration of, and the provision of cultural and educational access to, work and phonograms contained in their collection.”

*note: “Public interest entities” are publicly accessible libraries, educational establishments and museums, as well as . . . archives, film or audio heritage institutions and public-service broadcasting organizations.” 

The Directive still requires a search to identify the copyright owner of each work, and therefore is not friendly to mass digitization of orphan works. However, once a work is deemed orphaned in one country, it will be treated as orphaned throughout the EU, and a list of orphan works will be maintained in a single registry.

The UK, while a member of the EU and participating under the EU Directive, has gone a big step beyond the relatively narrow Directive. Effective October 29, 2014 (the same date the EU Directive took effect) it made all types of orphan works available for commercial, as well as cultural, bodies. The system will be administered by the UK Intellectual Property Office,* which will maintain a searchable electronic registry.

*note: See: “How to Apply for a License to Use an Orphan Work” on gov.uk. A more detailed “Orphan Works Licensing Scheme Overview,” is also available. As of the date of this post, it appears that the online electronic registry has yet to process any orphan work applications.

Both systems — the EU Directive and the more permissive UK licensing system — are highly controversial. How the systems will work in practice remains to be seen. Questions remain about many aspects of the systems, including how rigorous a “diligent search” will have to be before a work can be deemed “orphan,” whether works have had copyright identifying information stripped away, thereby incorrectly moving them into orphan status, and whether escrowed royalties (to be claimed by owners who show up later) will be set at adequate levels.

The United States — which has hung at the back of the pack — will be watching and, perhaps, picking up the know-how necessary to loosen the law on orphan works here.