Author Archives: Mason Vander Lugt

The Music Modernization Act, With Changes Advocated by ARSC, Represents a Major Advance for Preservation and Access to Historical Recordings

Post written by Tim Brooks, ARSC Copyright and Fair Use Committee Chair

On October 11, 2018, the president signed into law the Music Modernization Act, including provisions that greatly facilitate the work of sound archives and scholars. While by no means solving all the problems caused by draconian U.S. copyright law, it for the first time addresses some of those problems head-on and makes an impressive start on others. It is perhaps the most important copyright bill in forty years for those who seek to preserve and make accessible our recorded heritage.

The bill certainly did not start out that way, and the Association for Recorded Sound Collections, led by its Copyright and Fair Use Committee, has been deeply involved in ensuring that the legislation addressed the needs of the public as well as those of creators and commercial interests. Key provisions regarding sound recordings are as follows.

The Good:

  • Establishes a true public domain (all uses) for recordings for the first time. Initially this will be for pre-1923 recordings, but later it will include later years as well.
  • Applies federal exceptions and limitations for preservation activities (Sec. 107, 108) to all pre-’72 recordings.
  • Includes provisions to allow non-profit streaming of recordings which are verified to be out-of-print. This is a start on “orphan works.”
  • State law is preempted, ending the “patchwork quilt” of state laws that has so hindered archivists.

The Bad:

  • Pre-’23s will enter the public domain only after a three-year “transition period,” i.e. December 2021.
  • Later recordings get even longer “transition periods” tacked on to their nominal 95 year term. 1923-1946 recordings will have an effective copyright term of 100 years (95+5), and 1947-1956 recordings a 110 year term (95+15). Recordings made between 1957-1972 will go into the public domain in 2067, as previously.

ARSC has been actively involved in fighting for these changes for at least eleven years, against strong and entrenched interests in Washington, ever since the ARSC Board published its first public position on copyright in 2007. Its first goal was to bring recordings made before 1972 under federal (rather than state) law, which this bill accomplishes. ARSC was primarily responsible for instigating the U.S. Copyright Office study of the “desirability and means” of bringing pre-1972 recordings under federal control (2011), including addressing possible Constitutional issues, and contributed legal and other input to that study. It formed an industry coalition (www.recordingcopyright.org), submitted friend-of-the-court briefs in cases brought by “Flo and Eddie” which sought to head off compromise legislation by obtaining industry benefits through the courts, and it held numerous meetings with government officials and others to apprise them of the unique challenges regarding historical recordings.

Credit is due to many persons and organizations with whom ARSC worked in the course of this long endeavor, notably former Representative David Obey (who sponsored the legislation triggering the Copyright Office study), the U.S. Copyright Office (which carried the study out with thoroughness and professionalism), the public interest organization Public Knowledge (which took the fight to Congress in the critical final months), and Senator Ron Wyden (who championed key changes in the Senate). All were critical to the success of the legislation as enacted.

The Music Modernization Act is compromise legislation in the best sense of the word, where no one got everything they wanted but all benefited. It was totally non-partisan. It contains many provisions benefiting industry stakeholders, among other things streamlining music licensing by setting up a publicly accessible database and a collective to identify and pay owners of songs, distributing royalties for songs whose owners can’t be identified to current publishers, giving recording rights owners their long-sought royalties for streaming of pre-’72 recordings, and for the first time paying royalties to producers of recordings.

This is not the end of the battle for copyright law that better serves the American public. Many things still need to be done, including updating exceptions for preservation work, allowing broad use of orphan works, and reining in overly long copyright terms. I hope that a new generation of ARSC members will take up the fight. This success against overwhelming odds shows that it can be done.

The 2018 ARSC Awards for Excellence

Post submitted by the ARSC Awards Committee (David N. Lewis and Roberta Freund Schwartz, co-chairs)

The Association for Recorded Sound Collections is pleased to announce the winners of the 2018 ARSC Awards for Excellence in Historical Recorded Sound Research.  The awards will be presented at a ceremony on May 11, 2019, during ARSC’s annual conference in Portland, OR.  Additional information about the conference and the ARSC Awards for Excellence can be found at arsc-audio.org.

Begun in 1991, the ARSC Awards are given to authors of books, articles or recording liner notes to recognize those publishing the very best work today in recorded sound research. In giving these awards, ARSC recognizes the contributions of these individuals and aims to encourage others to emulate their high standards and to promote readership of their work. Two awards are presented annually in each category, for best history and best discography, and several others are acknowledged with Certificates of Merit. Awards are presented to both the authors and publishers of winning publications.

Winners are chosen by a committee consisting of three elected judges representing specific fields of study, two judges-at-large, the review editor of the ARSC Journal and the President or past President of ARSC. The 2018 ARSC Awards Committee consists of the following:

Dan Morgenstern (Jazz Music Judge); Jon Samuels (Classical Music Judge); Matthew Barton (Popular Music Judge and ARSC Past-President); Cary Ginell (Judge-At-Large and ARSC President); Richard Spottswood (Judge-at-Large); James Farrington (Book Review Editor, ARSC Journal); Patrick Feaster (ARSC past President); David N. “Uncle Dave” Lewis (Awards Committee Co-Chair), and Roberta Freund Schwartz (Awards Committee Co-Chair).

The 2018 Awards for Excellence honor books published in 2017.

The awardees are as follows:

BEST RESEARCH IN RECORDED ROCK MUSIC

Best History

Duane Tudahl, Prince and the Purple Rain Era Studio Sessions: 1983 and 1984 (Rowman & Littlefield)

Certificates of Merit

 

BEST RESEARCH IN RECORDED POPULAR MUSIC

Best History

David Yaffe, Reckless Daughter (Sarah Crichton Books)

Best Discography

Carl Magnus Palm, Abba: The Complete Recording Sessions: Revised and Expanded Edition (Carl Magnus Palm)

Certificate of Merit

Michael A. Amundson, Talking Machine West: A History and Catalogue of Tin Pan Alley’s Western Recordings, 1902–1918 (University of Oklahoma Press)

 

BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED JAZZ

Best History

Elaine M. Hayes, Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan (Ecco)

Best Discography

Cary Ginell, The Herbie Mann Picto-Discography (1952-2003) (lulu.com)

Certificates of Merit

 

BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED COUNTRY, FOLK, ROOTS, AND WORLD MUSIC

Best History

Roger Steffens, So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (W. W. Norton)

Best Discography

Nick Leigh, Cajun Records 1946-1989 (self-published)

Certificates of Merit

  

BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED BLUES, GOSPEL, SOUL, OR R&B

Best History

Jonathan Gould, Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life (Crown Archetype)

Certificates of Merit

 

BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH IN RECORDED CLASSICAL MUSIC

Best History

Harvey Sachs, Toscanini: Musician of Conscience (Liveright)

Best Discography

Jerome F. Weber,Cantigas de Santa Maria” Discography (Plainsong and Medieval Music Society)

Certificate of Merit

Pierre Schaeffer, Christine North, and John Dack, Treatise on Musical Objects: An Essay Across Disciplines (University of California Press)

 

BEST HISTORICAL RESEARCH ON RECORD LABELS AND GENERAL RECORDING TOPICS

Best History

David Giovannoni, Patrick Feaster, and Anne Thiollier, Edouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, Inventor of Sound Recording: A Bicentennial Tribute (Archeophone)

Certificates of Merit


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