Copyright term, film labeling, and film preservation legislation : hearings before the Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fourth Congress, first session, on H.R. 989, H.R. 1248, and H.R. 1734 ... June 1 and July 13, 1995 (1996)

92 can come along and record your song. And, of course, under the compulsory license, the song shouldn't be changed in any demonstrable way. Because there are some changes that are made to the song, but it shouldn't be demonstrable. No one should change the lyrics or the original melody in any way. There are certain liberties that are taken in the arrangement of a song. It can be done electronically as opposed to an original piano version or instrumental version. Generally speaking, that is the right within the scope of the compulsory license. One cannot change the lyrics of your song. One cannot in any way change the song — ^the writer owns the song and they can't change it. If they do, there is recourse under the law and you can go before the courts and stop that. Mr. Bono. Right. But let's go back to that. You can have your song demeaned in other ways then just the lyrics altered. And that is in the hands of the publisher only; correct? Mr. Murphy. I am not sure I understand what you mean. Mr. Bono. I am saying if another artist takes the song and it displeases the creator of that song and he would prefer not to have that money or the song recorded by that person if they don't record it in the fashion that it was written and the intention is somewhat demeaning, does he have any rights or is it to the discretion of the publisher only to say, yes, you can record that or, no, you can't record that? Mr. Murphy. Again, under the terms of the compulsory license, anyone can record a song. I can think of some times when I was a publisher that the original creators didn't particularly like a version that was published, but under the U.S. act and regulations, that version had to go out. I am talking about a recorded version. This is not a revision of lyrics or text. But the recording companies, as you know, do sign up an artist and do make the selection of that song. And of course, once they make that selection they have a right to put it out as long as it doesn't in any way change the original constitution of that song. Mr. Bono. Here is what I would like to suggest to you, because we are getting into rhetoric. After a song is turned over to the publisher, he becomes more or less the owner of that song and really the fate of that song is up to the publisher. And when we talk about this legislation, since we are going to have legislation and I understand you may get involved in that legislation, one of the bones of contention that I have as a songwriter is that you have nothing to say about your song after you write it and after you turn it over to a publisher. So the publisher has all of the say-so from that point forward. So, if someone wants to take a song and mock you with that song and use it to debase you, I guess that is the word, they can. They have to be a little clever, but they can. But if it represents dollars to the publisher, the publisher might let it fly. Anyway, I think that one consideration we have to talk about, since legislation is involved here, is that the songwriter — the creator should have as much rights as the publishers. And they don't at this point in time because hypothetically they signed a contract and it could have been when they were very, very green and didn't know a thing about the business.