New legislation has been proposed in Congress that would make the statutes behind the Copyright Act give a fair share to songwriters, composers and publishers. Doug Collins, a representative from Georgia, brought forth the new proposal, titled the Songwriter Equity Act. Stats cited from the National Music Publishers Association reported that more than two-thirds of songwriter income is regulated by law and legal consent decrees, which often cause the writers to receive less than their fair share.
Collins doesn't represent a part of the country renowned for its music scene (Georgia's ninth Congressional district comes just short of covering the college-rock haven of Athens), but several music publishing companies released statements praising his effort.
"This bill is an important step on the road to fairness for the more than 600,000 songwriters and music publishers represented by BMI," said BMI Chief Executive Officer Michael O'Neillin. "The current environment, where performances of sound recordings are valued at 12 times those of the musical compositions that underlie them, is untenable. Similarly, the rates set for making copies of musical works under Section 115 are artificially depressed and lack a relationship to the marketplace. We are simply asking Congress to take the evidentiary blinders off of the judges who control a significant portion of our writers' income from public performance and mechanical royalties."
In short: Songwriters (and therefore publishers) aren't getting enough of a cut. The original copyright legislation set by Congress in 1909 guaranteed a songwriter two cents for every copy of a piano roll sold. Modern law has only raised that amount to 9.1 cents per song. If the natural price increase had been allowed to occur, songwriters would be getting 52 cents per song.
Songwriters shouldn't get too excited yet, as a decision could be years in the making. But still, someone finally got the ball rolling.
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