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The legislation creates a copyright claims board at the U.S. Copyright office to hear small claims cases of infringement.
After 10 years of haggling, Congress officially passed the The Copyright Alternative in Small-Claims Enforcement (CASE) Act late Monday evening (Dec. 21) as part of the Omnibus COVID-19 Relief Bill. The bill will streamline copyright disputes by creating a small claims tribunal within the U.S. Copyright Office that will adjudicate small claims infringement cases.
Cases would be decided by a three-judge panel of experts in a forum where damages would be capped at $15,000 per claim and $30,000 total. Providing an avenue for copyright infringement disputes to be heard outside of expensive federal copyright litigation creates an affordable process for independent creators to enforce their rights without having to hire attorneys or pay hefty court fees.
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David Byrne once wrote that music’s evolution is shaped by the spaces it occupies, filling rooms and halls the way water takes the shape of its vessel. Artists, he observed, “work backward, either consciously or unconsciously, creating work that fits the venue available to us.” And what if no venues were available? He doesn’t say, because before the horrible, terrible, never-to-be-forgotten year of 2020, it would have seemed like a preposterous thought.
The shutdown of performances in America has devastated the music business, threatened its infrastructure long-term, and unnerved its professionals across all sectors. The crisis began in March, when the scale and severity of the global Covid-19 pandemic became clear. In a vertigo-inducing week, the entire live entertainment industry - from megatours to Broadway to coffee houses - went dark. The fate of mid-sized independent venues is particuarly precarious, because they represent the rungs on the ladder every artist must
Beyond the Bob Dylan Deal: A Word From the Music World
The Artist Rights Alliance says it is fighting for higher baseline royalties for musicians and more equitable rules of the digital road.
Dec. 11, 2020
To the Editor:
As board members of the Artist Rights Alliance, a nonprofit advocating for fair compensation for working musicians and songwriters, we can attest that online streaming hasn’t “helped lift the entire music market.” It has instead concentrated new revenues at a handful of major labels, publishers and superstars who operate at scale while most artists and songwriters struggle to build sustainable careers, even those who receive substantial airplay and critical acclaim.