1993-94

In the summer of 1993, the initial rumblings of the music licensing struggle were heard. The first "Music Licensing" bill was introduced in Congress later in the year, and the first Congressional hearings were held in February of 1994. The first comprehensive legislation on the subject, backed by the National Restaurant Association (NRA), the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB), and the National Licensed Beverage Association (NLBA) was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in the summer of 1994 and in the U.S. Senate by U.S. Senator Hank Brown (R-CO) in the fall. Both houses of Congress were then controlled by the Democratic party. ASCAP was successful in helping to kill the legislation at the end of the 1993-94 session of Congress.

1995-96

In 1995, following the November 1994 election sweep, the control of the U.S. Congress changed hands, from Democratic control to that of the Republican party. Congressman Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) became chief House sponsor of the "Music Licensing" bill. Following Senator Hank Brown (R) of Colorado's retirement, Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC) became one of the principal advocates for the bill in the Senate. Still, we were once again able to stop the "Music Licensing" bills with the help of allies including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and committee member Senator Fred Thompson (R-TN) and Ranking Minority Member Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT); and on the House side, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Henry Hyde (R-IL), Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Carlos Moorhead (R-CA), his successor in the next Congress, Congressman Howard Coble (R-NC), and committee member Congressman Bill McCollum (R-FL), as well as Ranking Minority Member John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), and committee members Congressmen Barney Frank (D-MA), and Howard Berman (D-CA), and many others.

1997

The Logjam Breaks?

ASCAP hosted a gala evening honoring member Billy Joel in Washington, D.C.. Shown backstage at the event are (l-r) the late Congressman Sonny Bono (R-CA), Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Billy Joel.

Congressman Sensenbrenner in the House and Sen. Thurmond in the Senate were again the chief sponsors of the "Music Licensing" bill in the 1997 session of Congress, by then our third round in the "Music Licensing" fight. In the course of the struggle to defeat the "Music Licensing" legislation yet again, other bills which ASCAP strongly supported, correcting the "La Cienega" matter and allowing for "Copyright Term Extension" were held hostage by our adversaries. This is an example of the political hardball we were facing by this point in both the U.S. House and Senate.

ASCAP members kept up the pressure on Congress with a highly effective series of face to face grassroots meetings with legislators, as well as thousands of phone calls, faxes and e-mail in opposition to the unfair "Music Licensing" bill, and in support of 'Copyright Term Extension." Groups of prominent ASCAP songwriters and composers wrote Open Letters to Congress, met with their Members of Congress, and we placed ads in Congressional publications such as Roll Call and The Hill to reach decision-makers. Despite the fact that our adversaries were larger and better funded than ASCAP's members, our efforts began to bear fruit.

Winter
1997-98











and
Spring
1998

It All Comes Down To...
By early 1998, ASCAP had accomplished the following:

ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento with President and CEO of the NMPA Edward Murphy, a leader in the passage of "La Cienega." (Photo by Lester Cohen)

• Passage of the "La Cienega" bill in conjunction with the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and other allied music organizations. This bill had been "held hostage" by a few members of the U.S. Senate who were sympathetic to the demands of the National Restaurant Association.
  
  
• ASCAP pioneered new agreements with the National Licensed Beverage Association and the National Religious Broadcasters, followed by the other performing right organizations. This moved the NLBA and the NRB into a neutral position regarding the "Music Licensing" bills, leaving the NRA to push for passage.
  
  
• Following the ASCAP negotiated agreements with the NLBA and the NRB, extensive negotiations had taken place exclusively with the NRA at the request of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and House Intellectual Property Subcommittee Chairman Howard Coble (R-NC).
  
  
• These negotiations had culminated in a late 1997 agreement covering only eating and drinking establishments. However, the NRA reneged on the Hatch agreement, much to the Senator's annoyance, indeed outrage. By that point, the NRA had been isolated.
  
  
• ASCAP was instrumental in bottling up the unfair "Music Licensing" bills in both the House and Senate Judiciary committees. Despite overwhelming approval by the Senate and House Judiciary Committees of the "Copyright Term Extension" bills, these much-needed bills had also been stalled.
  
  

When "Copyright Term Extension" finally began to move, the NRA was unsuccessful in its effort to stop the bill. The NRA suffered a 2 to 1 defeat in the Senate Judiciary Committee on "Copyright Term Extension," and were on the short end of a better than 2 to 1 vote count in the House Judiciary Committee. The bill at long last appeared to be making its way through the Congress.

A coalition was formed, including the motion picture industry, to urge passage of "Copyright Term Extension." The NRA, once again playing political hardball, persuaded the House leadership to refuse a full House vote on the "Copyright Term Extension" bill unless Congressman Sensenbrenner was permitted to offer a "Music Licensing" amendment. The stage was set.

The details of Sensenbrenner's amendment were not revealed until 24 hours before the March 1998 vote in the House. Congressman Sensenbrenner's proposal went well beyond the demands of the NRA, and created a new and broader coalition than had existed up to that point.

To replace the now-neutral NLBA and NRB, Congressman Sensenbrenner added to the NRA the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the National Retail Federation (NRF) by extending the "Music Licensing" exemption to retailers, and the National Homebuilders Association (NHBA), the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), and the Consumer Electronics Manufacturers Association of America (CEMA).

Perhaps the most potent adversary of all was the National Federation of Independent Business, representing hundreds of thousands of small businesses in Congressional districts across the country. The pressure was on.

On the day of the House vote on "Copyright Term Extension" in March 1998, these organizations listed it as a "key vote," which is part of their system of determining whether a candidate merits their future political and financial support. While the "Copyright Term Extension" bill had strong support across the political spectrum, Congressman Sensenbrenner was successful in his attempt to attach his "Music Licensing" bill as an amendment. His strategy worked; he had successfully bypassed the House Judiciary Committee, which had blocked his "Music Licensing" bill for so long.

In its final form, the Sensenbrenner Amendment contained an exemption of 3,500 net sq. ft. for eating, drinking, and retail establishments; an end to vicarious liability for "general" licensees; a mandated system of local arbitration around the country for any establishment wishing to challenge the fairness of ASCAP rates.

After Congressman Sensenbrenner's victory in the House, the "Copyright Term Extension" bill with his amendment languished in the U.S. Senate where Senators Orrin Hatch, Fred Thompson, Patrick Leahy, Ted Kennedy and other ASCAP supporters clearly indicated that they would prevent the bill from passing. At ASCAP's urging and with the active support of Vice President Gore, Secretary of Commerce William Daley wrote to the appropriate legislators indicating that anything like the Sensenbrenner amendment would generate a veto recommendation to the President.

Summer
1998

Fall
1998

The Heat Is On
Once that commitment was made, the problem which had to be solved was the "Music Licensing" bill. During the ASCAP Board meetings in Washington in September, Senator Lott made it very clear that though he felt the equities were on our side, it would be necessary to reach a compromise. At the same time, House Speaker Newt Gingrich was making public statements that he was going to see to it that "Copyright Term Extension" would be passed.

Following the ASCAP Board meetings with key Members of Congress, Senator Hatch continued to act forcefully on our behalf while Senators Fred Thompson and Mike DeWine (R-OH) also became involved. After several weeks of Congressional negotiations, Senator Hatch, perhaps the greatest Senate champion for the music community, reported to us that a compromise, between what our adversaries wanted and the 1997 "Hatch agreement," was going to be forced upon ASCAP by the other legislators involved.

On October 7, the Senate passed its version first and sent it to the House, which took it up, rather than the Sensenbrenner version. In a final piece of irony, Congressman James Sensenbrenner ended up as the chief House sponsor of the "Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension" bill, a piece of legislation he had done everything he could to stop. President Clinton signed the bill into law without fanfare on October 27.

In a final piece of legislation, Congress passed the "Digital Millennium" Copyright Bill, which brings the U.S. into line with World Intellectual Property Organization treaties and strengthens music copyrights on the Internet. President Clinton signed this bill into law on October 28, 1998.