[Fmpro] ASCAP Gen Meeting (LesHurdle)

[Mark Northam]

I wonder if these are included in the "Bill of Rights" at ASCAP:

* The right to be paid for all performances of your music on radio and TV
* The right for member services reps to be held accountable for their
actions or inactions re: responding to members
* The right to address the Board of Directors in person
* The right of to know full disclosure by ASCAP for multi-million dollar
decisions involving member dollars, such as IMJV, MediaGuide, etc.
* The right to see the at-source amount that a foreign PRO paid you BEFORE
ASCAP takes it's "deductions"
* The right for independent candidates to take part in the ASCAP election
process by petition with a reasonable signature requirement
* The right to know when and if our board members show up for board meetings
(ie, the attendance records)
* The right to know the voting records of our board members on issues of
importance to us
* The right for background instrumental music to have an equal opportunity
for feature performance pay as a background vocal has based on a fair and
impartial decision as to the importance of the music to the particular scene
* The right to negotiate a larger than 50% split for writers (like they
currently have in several other countries)
* The right, like publishers have, to belong to more than one US society so
we can split our catalog among the society that pays it the best. This right
is also enjoyed by every non-US writer, but is denied to US writers.

Something tells me I shouldn't be holding my breath on these... Far too easy
for ASCAP to ignore the blatant injustices and discrimination in it's own
system while keeping members focused on the perceived injustices perpetrated
by others....  A nice symbolic gesture, but until they clean up their own
system - which in terms of instrumental music is one of the most
discriminatory in the world - ASCAP has little moral authority to call into
question anyone else's actions.

Mark Northam


On 4/11/08 11:32 PM, "Bob Safir" <bsafir at socal.rr.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> I went to the General Meeting.  The main focus was on two new ASCAP
> documents:
>  - "A Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers"
>  - "Music Copyright in the Digital Age: A Position Paper"
> 
> The "Bill of Rights" is also contained within the position paper.  Suffice
> to say the paper covers everything from attempting to explain the confusing
> issues surrounding music copyrights to the confusing issues surround digital
> downloads.  I won't attempt to explain more here, but I may blog about it
> once the ASCAP Expo is over.
> 
> These documents are supposedly available on the ASCAP website as well.
> 
> -Bob
> www.robertsafir.com
> 
> 
>> Anyone go to the meeting?
>> Were there any promises re watermarking?
>> Did anyone match income to 'real' distribution?
> 
> 
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