In the Matter Of: ) ) Unclaimed Royalties ) Study Roundtable )
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) UNCLAIMED ROYALTIES ) STUDY ROUNDTABLE ) Pages: 1 through 290 Place: Washington, D.C. Date: March 25, 2021 HERITAGE REPORTING CORPORATION Official Reporters 1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 206 Washington, D.C. 20005-4018 (202) 628-4888 [email protected] 1 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) UNCLAIMED ROYALTIES ) STUDY ROUNDTABLE ) Remote Roundtable Suite 206 Heritage Reporting Corporation 1220 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. Thursday, March 25, 2021 The parties met remotely, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m. PARTICIPANTS: Session 1: Overview/Measuring Success DANIELLE AGUIRRE, National Music Publishers' Association (NPMA) KRIS AHREND, The MLC KEVIN M. CASINI, Ecco Artist Services CHRIS CASTLE, Christian L. Castle, Attorneys BILL COLITRE, Music Reports, Inc. TED KALO, Artist Rights Alliance GARRETT LEVIN, Digital Media Association (DiMA) VICKIE NAUMAN, Cross Border Works CHARLES SANDERS, Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 2 PARTICIPANTS: (Cont'd.) Session 2: Data and Matching/Identifying Copyright Owners DANIEL BALCELLS, BMAT Music Innovators LUIS BONILLA, SoundExchange, Inc. JANE BUSHMAKER, Prager Metis CPAs ALAN JENNINGS, Amazon BISHOP PERRY, BHP Royalty Company RENE MERIDETH, Exploration Group LLC LISA SELDEN, Spotify MICHAEL SHANLEY, Music Reports, Inc. RICHARD THOMPSON, The MLC ALEX WINCK, Pandora Session 3: User Experience, Accessibility, and Claiming DAE BOGAN, The MLC BRIAN BUCHANAN, Concord CAROLINE CHAMPARNAUD, Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers of Music (SACEM) ASHLEY IRWIN, Society of Composers & Lyricists (SCL) DONNY KANNER, Spotify SINDEE LEVIN, Sindee Levin Music ABBY NORTH, Songwriters of North America (SONA) DAVID TAYEBWA, Opus Music Publishing Africa Session 4: Education and Outreach SETH BERG, South Bay Music Group, LLC LINDA BLOSS-BAUM, SoundExchange, Inc. KEVIN COLES, 1020MUZIK MONICA CORTON, Go to Eleven Entertainment, LLC BOB DONNELLY, Fox Rothschild LLP SERONA ELTON, The MLC PHIL GALDSTON, Music Answers EDDIE SCHWARTZ, The International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) JAI YOKO, Jai Yoko Entertainment Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (10:00 a.m.) 3 MS. SMITH: Good morning, welcome everyone. 4 My name is Regan Smith, I’m General Counsel of the 5 United States Copyright Office, and welcome to the 6 Copyright Office's roundtables in connection with our 7 study on best practices in the mechanical licensing 8 collective in identifying and locating copyright 9 owners who may be entitled to unclaimed royalties. 10 We're going to have a day and a half of discussions. 11 We're very excited about this. 12 And before we start the first session, I'd 13 like to go over some logistical items to explain the 14 format. So, first, the roundtable sessions will be 15 moderated by Copyright Office attorneys. We will be 16 posing questions and calling on panelists to respond. 17 We're going to try to give everyone the opportunity to 18 respond to the questions that we pose. 19 If you wish to respond, you can sort of 20 signal, you can use the "Raise Hand" button on Zoom if 21 you would like to, and I know we're all pros in the 22 digital environment, so, if you're not speaking, 23 please mute your audio. 24 Given the number of panelists and topics 25 that we're hoping to cover, we ask that you please Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 4 1 limit your responses to about two minutes. Apologies 2 in advance, but if you're going over, we may have to 3 cut you off or even mute you. We appreciate your 4 understanding of the time constraints and also ask 5 that you limit your comments to the questions 6 presented. 7 Secondly, there are five sessions scheduled 8 today which can all be accessed if you're watching it 9 through the same Zoom link that we're using throughout 10 the day. There's a different Zoom link for tomorrow, 11 which is on the Copyright Office's website. Links to 12 information about the Music Modernization Act and our 13 study will be posted in the chat. And general 14 attendees who have any technical difficulties, you can 15 type that in the Q&A, and someone from the Copyright 16 Office will respond and assist you. 17 Our last session of the day is called an 18 "Audience Participation" session, and so members of 19 the public are able to provide comments for the record 20 for us to consider. If you may be interested in 21 participating, you can sign up with the SurveyMonkey 22 link that is provided in the chat. If you wish to 23 speak today, we ask that you sign up by no later than 24 3 p.m. Eastern. That session will begin at 5:15, and 25 we will call on those who have signed up to Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 5 1 participate. Comments should be limited to 2 approximately three minutes and should stick to the 3 topics that we are studying in this report. We also 4 have a similar session for tomorrow in case you miss 5 the 3 p.m. cutoff. 6 So, third, today's event is being recorded. 7 Videos of the sessions will be posted on the Copyright 8 Office website, along with a transcript which is being 9 created by a court reporter. That is enough 10 housekeeping. When we dive into the first session, 11 I'd like to start by asking my Copyright Office 12 colleague to introduce herself. 13 MS. CHAUVET: Hi, good morning. I'm Anna 14 Chauvet. I serve as Associate General Counsel. 15 MS. SMITH: Thank you, Ms. Chauvet. 16 So this first panel is about overview and 17 measuring success of the project, and I want to remind 18 everyone of the topics the Copyright Office is 19 studying. So Congress has asked the Copyright Office 20 to study best practices that the new Mechanical 21 Licensing Collective may implement in order to 22 identify and locate musical work copyright owners with 23 unclaimed accrued royalties held by the collective to 24 encourage those copyright owners to claim their 25 royalties and ultimately to reduce the incidence of Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 6 1 unclaimed royalties. 2 We are looking forward to lively 3 discussions, but we intend for these panels to be 4 constructive, to be forward-looking, and to hew to 5 this topic that Congress has asked us to study. 6 A quick roadmap for this panel so folks know 7 where to chime in. First, we will touch upon 8 identifying some of the biggest obstacles or 9 opportunities for the MLC to reduce unclaimed 10 royalties; second, to identify benchmarks or specific 11 metrics by which the MLC can measure its progress; and 12 third, to touch upon the role of transparency and 13 disclosure in facilitating understanding and 14 confidence in the system. 15 To start, I'm going to ask the panelists to 16 provide your name, your organizational affiliation, 17 and also whether you have any connection or 18 affiliation with the Mechanical Licensing Collective 19 or the Digital Licensee Coordinator. And after 20 speaking, maybe we can get the panelists to just call 21 on the panelist immediately to your right. 22 So, Mr. Kalo, you are the person immediately 23 to my right. Would you please start? 24 MR. KALO: Thanks, Regan. I'm Ted Kalo. 25 I'm the Executive Director of the Artist Rights Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 7 1 Alliance. We're a nonprofit, artist-run organization 2 advocating for fair pay for music creators. 3 Basically, we work for songwriters and musicians. 4 MS. SMITH: And whoever is to your right, 5 maybe just pass the mic to them, Mr. Kalo. 6 MR. KALO: I don't think I'm set up to see 7 who's to my right. I'm sorry. 8 MS. SMITH: Okay. Sorry about that. I was 9 trying to make it simple, and I made it more 10 complicated. How about, Mr. Colitre, could you please 11 go? 12 MR. COLITRE: Hi, I'm Bill Colitre. I'm the 13 Vice President and General Counsel of Music Reports. 14 No affiliation with the MLC or the DLC, although we do 15 represent numerous members of DLC. Mr. Castle is -- 16 MS. SMITH: Mr. Levin? 17 MR. COLITRE: -- to my right. Sorry. Chris 18 Castle, that's you. 19 MR. CASTLE: Sorry. My name is Chris 20 Castle. I'm a music lawyer in Austin, Texas. I have 21 no affiliation with any of those organizations. I 22 tend to be on the artist side or with tech startups on 23 the company side. 24 MS. NAUMAN: And I'm Vickie Nauman. I am 25 the founder of Cross Border Works, which is a Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 8 1 consulting advisory business. I have worked both with 2 DSPs as well as with the MLC. I helped herd some cats 3 for the MLC last fall on the DSP side, and I just want 4 to say that I'm really happy to be here. 5 MS. SMITH: All right, Mr. Casini, I think 6 you have some audio static. Would you like to 7 introduce yourself and state your affiliation? 8 (No response.) 9 MS. SMITH: All right. I think Mr. Casini 10 is having some audio issues. I will just call on the 11 remaining people because this doesn't seem to be 12 working as easy as I thought.