We Should Protect Artists and Songwriters

Floor Speech

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the DMCA, as it is commonly known here in this Chamber, is nearly 20 years old.

Now, just as a reminder, 20 years ago, Google was being born, Americans were out dancing the ``Macarena,'' and they were holding cell phones that were the size of bricks. That was 20 years ago.

Tech companies like YouTube may have changed the way Americans consume music, but our laws have not kept pace to protect the songwriters and the artists who actually create that music.

This week, 180 musical artists and songwriters, including Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, The Black Keys, and the bands Chicago and U2, sent a letter to Congress calling for the reform of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a copy of this letter.

Dear Congress: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is broken and no longer works for creators.

As songwriters and artists who are a vital contributing force to the U.S. and to American exports around the world, we are writing to express our concern about the ability of the next generation of creators to earn a living. The existing laws threaten the continued viability of songwriters and recording artists to survive from the creation of music. Aspiring creators shouldn't have to decide between making music and making a living. Please protect them.

One of the biggest problems confronting songwriters and recording artists today is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This law was written and passed in an era that is technologically out-of-date compared to the era in which we live. It has allowed major tech companies to grow and generate huge profits by creating ease of use for consumers to carry almost every recorded song in history in their pocket via a smartphone, while songwriters' and artists' earnings continue to diminish. Music consumption has skyrocketed, but the monies earned by individual writers and artists for that consumption has plummeted.

The DMCA simply doesn't work. It's impossible for tens of thousands of individual songwriters and artists to muster the resources necessary to comply with its application. The tech companies who benefit from the DMCA today were not the intended protectorate when it was signed into law nearly two decades ago. We ask you to enact sensible reform that balances the interests of creators with the interests of the companies who exploit music for their financial enrichment. It's only then that consumers will truly benefit.

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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Here is the problem: the DMCA safe harbor provision.

What this does, YouTube has created a platform where anyone with a smartphone can access nearly any song ever recorded. Often this content is infringed, and it does not--does not--compensate the artist who created it.

The safe harbor provision immunizes YouTube from claims of copyright infringement if it removes the infringing content in a timely fashion after YouTube has been notified by an artist or a record company. With millions of songs on YouTube, it is really impossible.

Grammy-winning jazz/classical composer Maria Schneider has said the following about the DMCA: ``The DMCA makes it my responsibility to police the entire Internet on a daily basis. As fast as I take my music down, it reappears again on the same site like an endless Whac-A-Mole game.''

This not only threatens the vitality of songwriters but the economic contributions they make in our communities. Take my home area in Tennessee. A 2012 study shows that in Nashville itself the music industry is a $5.5 billion asset to the economy. Looking at the entire middle Tennessee region, it is $9.7 billion.

This is a fundamental American principle. If you make something, if you create something, it belongs to you. In no other walk of life do we allow people to steal the work of others and turn a blind eye, except when it comes to songwriters and entertainers.

Our friends in the tech industry, who do little to nothing to see that the songwriter is protected on their platforms, are the first ones to complain if one of their patents is slightly infringed upon. So I ask them, why are their creations deserving of protection but the creations of others are not? It is unfair, and they know it.

But creators are not going to keep taking it. The times, they are a- changin', as Bob Dylan would say. That is why, for years, I have sought to protect music creators through legislation, like the Fair Play Fair Pay Act that Representative Nadler and I are working on and the Songwriter Equity Act.

To our friends in the tech industry, I say this: willful blindness or situational ethics aren't okay; ignorance and denial, not acceptable; and refusing to pay people for their work is unfair, and it really needs to stop.

This is about fairness, and it is about honoring the law by enforcing the law. It is that simple.

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