Library of Congress

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS IN THE MATTER OF: ) ) UNCLAIMED ROYALTIES ) STUDY ROUNDTABLE ) Pages: 291 through 427 Place: Washington, D.C. Date: March 26, 2021 HERITAGE REPORTING CORPORATION Official Reporters 1220 L Street, N.W., Suite 206 Washington, D.C. 20005-4018 (202) 628-4888 [email protected] 291 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. Friday, March 26, 2021 The parties met remotely, pursuant to notice, at 10:00 a.m. PARTICIPANTS: Session 1: Holding and Distribution, Part 1 STEVEN AMBERS, Society of Composures, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) RICK CARNES, Songwriters Guild of America (SGA) ALI LIEBERMAN, SoundExchange, Inc. IAIN MORRIS, Pandora WILLIAM NIX, Creative Projects Group SAM SOKOL, Artist Rights Alliance SHANNON SORENSEN, National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) ERIKA NURI TAYLOR, The MLC (Unclaimed Royalties Committee) Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 292 PARTICIPANTS: (Cont'd.) Session 2: Holding and Distribution, Part 2 JOHN BARKER, ClearBox Rights ALISA COLEMAN, The MLC TODD DUPLER, Recording Academy JÖRG EVERS, The International Council of Music Creators (CIAM) FRANK LIWALL, The MLC (Unclaimed Royalties Committee) MARK MEIKLE, Easy Song/Giddy Music JOHN SIMSON JENNIFER TURNBOW, Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI) Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 293 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 (10:00 a.m.) 3 MS. SMITH: Good morning, everyone. My name 4 is Regan Smith. I'm General Counsel of the U.S. 5 Copyright Office. And welcome to day two of our 6 roundtables in connection with our study to recommend 7 best practices for the mechanical licensee to consider 8 in connection with its project of reducing the 9 incidence of unclaimed royalties. 10 Before we begin, I'm going to go over a few 11 logistical items for the whole day. So, first, the 12 roundtable sessions will be moderated by Copyright 13 Office attorneys. We will pose questions and call on 14 panelists to respond. You can either raise your hand 15 old school or use the Zoom button to indicate if you 16 would like to speak. And if you're not speaking, I 17 know we know this, but please mute your audio. 18 Given the panelists and the topics that we 19 hope to cover today, we ask that you try to limit your 20 responses to two minutes and to stick to the question 21 posed. We'll kind of go through everything in an 22 order, so thanks for understanding that. 23 Second, there's three sessions today. They 24 can all be accessed using the same Zoom link we are on 25 now. And so, if anyone has any technical Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 294 1 difficulties, just type in the Q&A, and someone from 2 the Copyright Office will respond and help you out. 3 Our last session of the day is an audience 4 participation session in which members of the public 5 are able to provide comments for the record. So, if 6 you are interested in participating, you may sign up 7 using a SurveyMonkey link that is provided in the chat 8 right now by no later than 12:45 p.m. Either you are 9 not on a panel but would like to contribute to the 10 discussion or even you were a panelist and wish to add 11 something on a topic that is of a different subject 12 matter. 13 That will start around 1:00 p.m., and we 14 will call up those who have signed to participate. If 15 you could please try to limit your comments to about 16 three minutes, that would be in keeping with our 17 general approach. 18 So, third, today's event is being recorded, 19 and the video is going to be posted on the Copyright 20 Office website. Please note that we will also have a 21 court reporter, who is transcribing the proceedings, 22 and that transcription will also be posted online. 23 So, before we begin, I'd like to ask my 24 Copyright Office colleagues to introduce themselves. 25 MR. SLOAN: Hi, everyone. I'm Jason Sloan, Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 295 1 Assistant General Counsel. 2 MS. SCIORTINO: Good morning, everyone. My 3 name is Cassie Sciortino. I am a Barbara Ringer 4 Fellow with the Copyright Office. 5 MS. SMITH: Thank you. And now I'm going to 6 ask the panelists to introduce themselves. If you can 7 provide your name, your affiliation, and whether you 8 have any connection with MLC or the Digital Licensee 9 Coordinator. We'll go in alphabetical order, so Mr. 10 Ambers. 11 MR. AMBERS: Hi, I'm Steven Ambers. I am 12 the Vice President of Corporate Development at SOCAN. 13 We are a mechanical rights society in Canada, a lot of 14 the performing rights, so we do have about 300,000 15 copyrights as a, I guess they would call us a 16 publisher with the MLC. Previously, we owned MediaNet 17 and were members of the DLC, but we have sold MediaNet 18 and are no longer members of the DLC. 19 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Mr. Carnes? 20 MR. CARNES: Yes, I'm Rick Carnes, President 21 of the Songwriters Guild of America and a professional 22 songwriter. I have no current affiliation with the 23 MLC. 24 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Ms. Lieberman? 25 MS. LIEBERMAN: Hi, I'm Ali Lieberman. I'm Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 296 1 the Senior Director of Business Process and Product 2 Management at SoundExchange. We do not have a current 3 affiliation with the MLC. SoundExchange is a 4 collective management organization in the U.S. for 5 sound recordings and performance royalties. 6 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Mr. Morris? 7 MR. MORRIS: Hello, Iain Morris. I head up 8 publishing, licensing, and songwriter relations for 9 Pandora. We are an MLC blanket licensee, and we're 10 also part of the DLC. 11 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Mr. Nix? 12 MR. NIX: I am the CEO of a company called 13 Creative Projects Group, as well as an adjunct 14 professor at Pepperdine University, and not affiliated 15 with the MLC. 16 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Mr. Sokol? 17 MR. SOKOL: Sorry. I'm Sam Sokol. I am 18 with the Artist Rights Alliance. We're an artist-run 19 nonprofit organization advocating for fair pay for 20 music creators and the digital economy. We work for 21 musicians and songwriters. No affiliation with the 22 MLC or DLC. 23 MS. SMITH: Thank you. Ms. Sorensen? 24 MS. SORENSEN: Hi, thanks for having me. I 25 am Vice President for Legal and Business Affairs at Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 297 1 the National Music Publishers Association. NMPA was 2 part of the coalition that helped create and propose 3 this MLC. And our executive vice president and 4 general counsel, Danielle Aguirre, sits on the board 5 of the MLC as a nonvoting member. 6 MS. SMITH: Thank you. And Ms. Taylor. 7 MS. TAYLOR: Hi, thank you for having me. 8 I'm Erika Nuri Taylor. I am a Grammy-nominated and 9 ASCAP award-winning songwriter. I'm also on the 10 Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee for the MLC. 11 MS. SMITH: Thank you all for joining us 12 this morning. I want to provide sort of a quick 13 roadmap so you know the order of the questions. So 14 we're hoping to touch upon four main areas. First is 15 any recommendations of best practices for the 16 appropriate length of holding of unclaimed royalties 17 before they ultimately are distributed to those 18 copyright owners who are identified; second, best 19 practices regarding the market share calculations 20 required under the statute for making those 21 distributions; third, issues relating to the advance 22 public notice required to go out for distribution; and 23 fourth, any considerations for general transparency in 24 the holding and distribution process. 25 So starting with the holding period, I want Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 298 1 to just refresh our minds on the statute this Friday 2 morning. So, under the MMA, the MLC will not 3 distribute any of the historical unmatched royalties 4 until 2023 at the earliest. And the statute also sets 5 a minimum three-year holding period going forward 6 before any unmatched royalties can be distributed by a 7 market share as unclaimed royalties. And if you are 8 doing math and wondering how we get to 2023 since the 9 MLC didn't hold any royalties until 2021, I think it's 10 because, in February of this year, the MLC received 11 $424 million transferred for so-called historical 12 unmatched royalties, some of which has been held by 13 DSPs for uses dating back prior to 2020. 14 So two of our panelists today, Ms. Taylor 15 and someone else, Mr. Liwall on the next session, are 16 members of the Unclaimed Royalties Oversight 17 Committee. And, Ms. Taylor, I wonder, could you start 18 out just by explaining what that committee is and if 19 there's any current thinking you would be able to 20 share about the committee's approach to these issues? 21 MS. TAYLOR: So, yeah, the Unclaimed 22 Royalties Oversight Committee is a committee of 23 songwriters and publishers, and we talk about and 24 discuss what the best way is to make sure that all 25 copyright owners, rightful copyright owners, are able Heritage Reporting Corporation (202) 628-4888 299 1 to collect their mechanical royalties.

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