Broadcasting (Jan - Dec 1935)

Revision of Copyright Law Submitted Federal Group Studies Plan Permitting American Entry In Rome Treaty; $250 Infringement Fee Involved By SOL TAISHOFF JVERSHADOWING all legislative activity involving copyright and performance of copyrighted works n the past decade, a bill sponsored by the State Department to amend the Copyright Act of 1909 iiow is pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It *vas the subject of conferences before a special interdepartmental committee during the week of Feb. 18 in which the broadcasting industry and other interested groups rwere represented. A number of provisions in the ■existing law which have proved both damaging and irksome to broadcasting, including the $250 statutory minimum infringement fee, will be drastically altered if recommendations of the State Department are adopted by Congress. Many reforms in copyright procedure, which would strip the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers of the arbitrary powers it now holds, would be instituted, if recommendations made by the NAB, hotel groups, motion picture exhibitors, and other users, are adopted. American Entry THE PROPOSED DRAFT of the measure submitted by the State Department to the Senate was designed so to alter the Copyright Act of 1909 as to permit American entry into the Rome revision of the Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Property. After submission of the proposal, however, protests were filed by numerous organizations, including the NAB, and the matter was referred by the Foreign Relations Committee to the State Department for the taking of further testimony by the interdepartmental committee. These conferences were held Feb. 19, 20, 21 and 23 with the most important testimony, from the standpoint of the broadcasting industry, offered on the final day. The Interdepartmental Committee hoped to have its report ready for the Senate Committee during the week of March 4, after which rather prompt action was anticipated. The proposed ratification of the convention has the support of the administration. The original draft of the State Department's bill, which proposed the first substantial revision of the copyright law since its enactment, would include radio broadcasting in its provisions for the first time. Highspots of this original proposal, insofar as broadcasting is concerned, are reduction of the statutory minimum infringement fee from $250 to $100; extension of the scope of the copyright laws to include both literary matter and copyrighted music broadcast over stations, and exemption from copyright requirements of hotels, stores, restaurants and others who pick up radio programs on receiving sets for incidental entertainment of their patrons. This proposal, if enacted, would take away from ASCAP its right to demand royalties from such establishments— a right which it claims to have acquired under the celebrated Jewell LaSalle case of six years ago, adjudicated by the Supreme Court. The broadcasting industry, through the NAB, suggested a number of amendments to the State Department draft designed to bring to the broadcasting industry maximum protection. It urged enactment of the amended law with these suggested provisions included. In its demands it was supported by the American Hotel Association, and Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America. The most important suggested amendment offered in behalf of the broadcasting industry by Philip G. Loucks, NAB managing director, was the proposal to eliminate the statutory minimum damage requirement altogether. Whereas the State Department in its first draft had proposed reduction of this fee from $250 to $100, Mr. Loucks contended that it should be eliminated altogether, with the copyright owners to collect such damages as a court of law decides they are entitled to after hearing of the case. Protection for Radio THE PROPOSED revision is highly complex. Throughout his argument for the industry, Mr. Loucks asked that in the new legislation the same considerations be given radio as are given periodicals and newspapers with respect to injunctions procured by copyright owners for infringements. In other words, he pointed out that if a newspaper infringes a copyright, injunction cannot tie up the entire publication. By the same token, he contended that in the case of a radio program, injunctions should not be allowed to cancel the entire program, but simply that portion of it involved in the alleged infringement. As drafted, the measure provides for automatic copyright of all foreign compositions, a provision which admittedly places a greater burden upon users of copyrighted works. This would remove from the public domain (compositions on which no copyright exists) all numbers now protected by countries signatory to the convention. Whereas foreign copyrights would be automatic, copyrights in this country would have to be registered by the owner, as at present, before he could sue for damages or profits. Should such foreign compositions not be registered, then the owner could sue for a reasonable license only, which in no case, under the proposed draft, can exceed $2,500. Literary Works IN HIS opening statement, Mr. Loucks raised two prime points respecting the application of the proposed amended law to the broadcasting industry. Broadcasting, he brought out, is the only substantial user of copyright material to come into existence since the original act in 1909. Secondly, he explained that it is the only group mentioned in the proposed revision that is licensed by the government to operate in the public interest and whose operations are not carried on for the sole idea of profit. Moreover, he explained that in most other countries which are signatories to the copyright convention, radio is owned or operated by the government, whereas in the United States it is privately owned and competitively operated. Therefore, he asserted, the problems in this country differ from those of foreign countries. Of vast importance is the proposal in the State Department draft that copyrights, insofar as RCA PLANS FACSIMILE CIRCUIT New York-Philadelphia Service Projected/ Television Not Yet Practical, Says David Sarnoff Mr. Sarnoff PROGRESS in facsimile transmission has reached the point where communication "by the square inch" instead of by Morse code is now possible, and by which RCA will place into service this year a high-speed ultra-short wave facsimile circuit between New York and Philadelphia, David Sarnoff, president of RCA, declared Feb. 27 in his annual report to stockholders of that company. Unlike television, which he called impractical in this country at the present time, Mr. Sarnoff declared that facsimile development promises new point-to-point communications and broadcast services to the home, including pictures, printed matter and other visual material. "The translation of these developments into practical public services, however," he asserted, "presents a number of complex financial, commercial and operating problems which are receiving the continued study of your management." Mr. Sarnoff pointed out that facsimile has been employed experimentally for some months in the reception aboard ship of weather maps, pictures and other information useful and interesting to navigators and passengers. Aside from home and commercial uses, he declared that this new system "may also find application in police work, for the transmission between cities of photographs (Continued on page 45) they relate to radio, apply to literary works. At present such works, quotations, poems and the like are not so covered and can be used on the air without the permission of copyright owners. Under the proposed new law, however, the right of the author to protect his works is provided, and his permission must be procured, or royalties paid. This however, would not cover so-called "fair quotations" when proper credit is given the author. Protection for Scripts THIS PROVISO, however, works both ways, for it also protects against infringement, scripts and continuities written for the radio. In the past, there has been no adequate recognized protection for the radio writer. Appearing along with Mr. Loucks on behalf of the broadcasting industry were E. S. Sprague, NBC attorney; Sidney Kaye, CBS counsel; Henry A. Bellows, legislative chairman of the NAB; and Oswald F. Schuette, president of the Radio Program Foundation, NAB music subsidiary which has been largely dormant since its creation two years ago. Joining the NAB in its demands for suggested amendments, particularly on the score of elimination of the statutory minimum requirement were H. P. Somerville, chairman of the legislative committee of the American Hotel Association, and A. Julian Brylawski, vice president of the Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America. Mr. Somerville advocated particularly the elimination of the ASCAP licer. 2 fee on hotel radio receivers. The Other Viewpoint AMONG those appearing in opposition to some of the suggested changes were E. Claude Mills, general manager of ASCAP, and Louis D. Frolich, ASCAP counsel, and law associate of Nathan D. Burkan, ASCAP general counsel. They said they favored entering the union, and ebjected strenuously to the elimination of the $250 statutory minimum, claiming _ it was the only protection against infringement of the author. Likewise, they opposed the State Department proposal to eliminate hotel receivers and other receivers in establishments catering to the public, from royalties. They were outspoken in accusing radio interests of seeking all sorts of ways of taking music without paying for it. Mr. Mills held that the United States should enter the Union under the law as now written, and seek changes in the statute afterward. In this view, however, he had no followers among the groups which appeared. Sitting as the interdepartmental committee were Wallace McClure, assistant to Assistant Secretary of State Sayre; William L. Brown, register of copyrights of the Library of Congi-ess; Richard C. DeWolf, assistant register, and L. G. Koetfle, acting chief of copyrights of the Department of Commerce. Mr. McClure, sitting as chairman, explained following the conferences that he hoped to have the report completed during the week of March 4. It will be submitted to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. March 1, 1935 • BROADCASTING Page 9