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Royalties Bill Passes In Subcommittee
WASHINGTON -- June 26, 2008: The Performance Rights Act has been passed by the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property.
The outcome of the vote was not unexpected, and NAB EVP Dennis Wharton called it a "complete non-surprise, given the House IP Subcommittee's history of support for the RIAA-backed tax on local radio stations."
Wharton continued, "Despite today's action, there remains broad bipartisan resistance to the RIAA tax from members of Congress who question whether a punitive fee on America's hometown radio stations should be used to bail out the failing business model of foreign-owned record labels."
The Local Radio Freedom Act, a non-binding resolution saying Congress should not impose "any new performance fee, tax, royalty, or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings" on broadcast radio, now has the support of a majority of the House.
Reps. Mike Conaway (R-TX and Gene Green (D-TX, who introduced the LRFA last year -- a few weeks before the Performance Rights Act was introduced -- yesterday circulated a letter in the House asking for more support for the resolution. The letter says, "Local radio and artists have a symbiotic relationship that benefits both parties. A 'performance tax' that would require local radio stations to pay a fee to the recording industry every time a song is played would destroy this relationship and inhibit upcoming artists."
Conaway and Green point to the support the resolution has received, and ask their colleagues to "please join a majority of the U.S. House and support your local radio stations" by co-sponsoring the Local Radio Freedom Act."
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