Mandatory licensing (was: Re: LPFM)

[Garrett Wollman <wollman>]

<<On Sat, 22 Jan 2000 12:46:20 -0800 (PST), Larry Weil <kc1ih@yahoo.com> said:

> Law???  Is there a law which sets these licensing
> fees.  I thought these licensing agencies were NOT
> govenmental agencies, so how would there rates be
> set by any law?

The rights which they license are fictitious.  The rights of copyright
holders are conjured out of whole cloth by the government, and the
government has set statutory limits to those rights (implemented by
the Copyright Office, part of the Library of Congress) in
circumstances where they conflict with the public good.  In this
specific instance, there is a mandatory licensing scheme for several
kinds of copyrighted material, including music (for use in jukeboxes
and by non-commercial broadcasters).  There was at one time a
mandatory licensing scheme for television programs as well, wherein
cable systems paid a fraction of gross revenue to the Copyright Office
which doled it out to program producers; I don't know if this is still
active, or was repealed in the last three Cable Acts.

-GAWollman

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