200 House Members Now On Board With Local Radio Freedom Act
WASHINGTON -- May 18, 2009: The Local Radio Freedom Act, a resolution opposing performance royalties for radio, adds the support of four more members of the House, bringing the total to 200. The bill has added eight co-sponsors since the House Judiciary Committee approved the Performance Rights Act last week; that bill would for the first time impose performance royalties on over-the-air radio.
"Lawmakers are growing increasingly skeptical over record-label claims that this legislation is about 'helping artists'," said NAB EVP Dennis Wharton. "And given the historic abuse of artists by the labels, who can blame them? The sad truth is that a performance tax will cripple an artist's number one promotional vehicle -- free radio airplay -- and it will transfer hundreds of millions of dollars from America's hometown radio stations into the coffers of foreign-owned record labels."
The Local Radio Freedom Act reads, "Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings on a local radio station for broadcasting sound recordings over-the-air, or on any business for such public performance of sound recordings."
The LRFA is a non-binding resolution and doesn't have the force of law or guarantee that a given member of the House will ultimately vote against the Performance Rights Act, but the support for it does give a sense of the feelings on the issue among legislators.
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