The Copyright Office has asked for comments from the public on important issues for rulemakings under the Music Modernization Act. This will potentially affect the operations of The MLC and related rights especially because the Copyright Office recently extended the scope of that rulemaking. The proposal drew a mixed response.

We will be posting selected comments that we think might be interesting to Trichordist readers. The project is a bit wonky, but important to stay informed on.

Spirit’s thesis:

We commend the US Copyright Office (USCO) for its highly regarded work in protecting rightsholders and their intellectual property rights. Your efforts have achieved great strides to prevent the misuse and abuse of music copyrights.

Although the [Notice of Proposed Rulemaking]’s original intent was to address the ambiguity in certain aspects of the Termination Right, the USCO’s extension of the scope beyond Termination Rights disrupts standard practices that have been long tested and put into practice by rightsholders. The administrators of copyrighted material are best suited to understand the most current and pragmatic business practices. As such, the administrators should be the ones to establish the day-to-day standards of copyright administration and to make the recommendations pertaining to the administration of copyrights and their respective payments at the MLC.

We believe the administrators’ standard practices and pragmatic solutions must be considered.