The United States Copyright Office has announced the initiation of a study of the
effectiveness of existing methods of music licensing. Three types
of licenses were mentioned in the announcement: (1) compulsory
licenses for the reproduction and distribution of musical
compositions; (2) licenses for the public performance of
compositions through ASCAP and BMI; and (3) licenses for the
relatively new right in the digital public performance of sound
recordings.
Among the issues that will be considered are:
Compulsory Licenses for Reproducing and Distributing
Musical Compositions
The owner of a musical composition has a "mechanical"
right, which is the exclusive right to make and distribute copies
of the composition (including records, CDs, digital downloads,
etc.). This right is subject to a compulsory licensing scheme set
forth in 17 U.S.C. § 115. In practical terms, this
means that if you are a musician who wants to record and sell a
version of a song someone
