Ask Musicians For Music Act of 2019

I 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 5219 To amend title 17, United States Code, to require broadcasters to obtain permission to transmit content owned by another person, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NOVEMBER 21, 2019 Mr. NADLER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary A BILL To amend title 17, United States Code, to require broad- casters to obtain permission to transmit content owned by another person, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ask Musicians For 4 Music Act of 2019’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Dec 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •HR 5219 IH SEC. 2. TRANSMISSION CONSENT FOR TERRESTRIAL 1 BROADCASTS. 2 (a) RIGHT APPLICABLE TO TRANSMISSIONS GEN- 3 ERALLY.—Section 106(6) of title 17, United States Code, 4 is amended by striking ‘‘a digital’’ and inserting ‘‘an’’. 5 (b) TRANSMISSION CONSENT.—Section 114(d)(1)(A) 6 of title 17, United States Code, is amended by adding 7 after ‘‘transmission’’ the following: ‘‘, except that, in the 8 case of a transmission made by a radio station, the radio 9 station shall obtain the express authority of the copyright 10 owner of that sound recording for any such transmission 11 (unless the transmission consists of services at a place of 12 worship (or at another religious assembly) or incidental 13 uses of a musical work)’’. 14 SEC. 3. SMALL BROADCASTERS; PUBLIC AND EDU- 15 CATIONAL RADIO. 16 (a) SMALL BROADCASTERS.— 17 (1) IN GENERAL.—Consent required under sec- 18 tion 2 shall be deemed satisfied by the payment of 19 $500 per year by any radio station with revenues in 20 that year of less than $1,000,000, including all reve- 21 nues arising from or relating to the operation of the 22 station, as calculated in accordance with generally 23 accepted accounting principles in the United States. 24 (2) AFFILIATES.—For the purposes of calcu- 25 lating revenues under paragraph (1) with respect to 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:34 Dec 05, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •HR 5219 IH affiliated broadcast stations, revenues shall be allo- 1 cated reasonably to individual stations that are asso- 2 ciated with those revenues. 3 (b) PUBLIC BROADCASTERS, COLLEGE RADIO, AND 4 OTHER NONCOMMERCIAL STATIONS.—Any negotiation to 5 obtain the express authority of a copyright owner that is 6 required with respect to a transmission made by a radio 7 station under section 114(d)(1)(A) of title 17, United 8 States Code, as amended by section 2(b), may not result 9 in the payment of compensation in an amount that is more 10 than $100 per year by any individual terrestrial broadcast 11 station that is— 12 (1) licensed by the Federal Communications 13 Commission as an individual terrestrial broadcast 14 station; and 15 (2) a public broadcasting entity, as that term is 16 defined in section 118(f) of title 17, United States 17 Code. 18 (c) DESIGNATED AGENT.—Payments made pursuant 19 to subsections (a) and (b) shall be directed to the agent 20 designated to distribute receipts from the licensing of dig- 21 ital transmissions in accordance with section 114(f) of title 22 17 and used to defray administrative costs as described 23 in section 114(g)(3)(A) of title 17. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Dec 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •HR 5219 IH SEC. 4. CONFORMING AMENDMENTS. 1 (a) DEFINITION.—Section 101 of title 17, United 2 States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relat- 3 ing to ‘‘architectural work’’ the following: 4 ‘‘An ‘audio transmission’ is the communication of a 5 sound recording, whether in digital, analog, or other for- 6 mat, whereby sounds are received beyond the place from 7 which they are sent. An audio transmission does not in- 8 clude the transmission of any audiovisual work.’’. 9 (b) OTHER CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Title 17, 10 United States Code, is amended— 11 (1) in section 112(e)(8), by striking ‘‘a digital 12 audio transmission’’ and inserting ‘‘an audio trans- 13 mission’’; 14 (2) in section 114— 15 (A) in subsection (d)— 16 (i) in paragraph (1)— 17 (I) in the matter preceding sub- 18 paragraph (A), by striking ‘‘a digital’’ 19 and inserting ‘‘an’’; and 20 (II) in subparagraph (B)— 21 (aa) by striking clauses (i) 22 and (iii); 23 (bb) by redesignating 24 clauses (ii) and (iv) as clauses (i) 25 and (ii), respectively; and 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Dec 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •HR 5219 IH (cc) in clause (ii), as so re- 1 designated, by striking ‘‘retrans- 2 mission, whether or not simulta- 3 neous, is a’’ and inserting ‘‘re- 4 transmission is a non-simulta- 5 neous,’’; 6 (ii) in paragraph (2)— 7 (I) in the matter preceding sub- 8 paragraph (A), by striking ‘‘subscrip- 9 tion digital’’ and inserting ‘‘subscrip- 10 tion’’; and 11 (II) in subparagraph (C)(viii), by 12 striking ‘‘digital signal’’ and inserting 13 ‘‘signal’’; and 14 (iii) in paragraph (4)— 15 (I) in subparagraph (A), by strik- 16 ing ‘‘a digital audio transmission’’ and 17 inserting ‘‘an audio transmission’’; 18 and 19 (II) in subparagraph (B)(i), by 20 striking ‘‘a digital audio trans- 21 mission’’ and inserting ‘‘an audio 22 transmission’’; 23 (B) in subsection (g)(2)(A), by striking ‘‘a 24 digital’’ and inserting ‘‘an’’; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Dec 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •HR 5219 IH (C) in subsection (j)— 1 (i) in paragraph (6)— 2 (I) by striking ‘‘digital’’; and 3 (II) by striking ‘‘retransmissions 4 of broadcast transmissions’’ and in- 5 serting ‘‘broadcast transmissions and 6 retransmissions of broadcast trans- 7 missions’’; and 8 (ii) in paragraph (8), by striking 9 ‘‘subscription digital’’ and inserting ‘‘sub- 10 scription’’; and 11 (3) in section 1401(b), in the matter preceding 12 paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘a digital’’ and inserting 13 ‘‘an’’. 14 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:16 Dec 04, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H5219.IH H5219 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS