The recent resignation of music creator David Lowery from the Mechanical Licensing Collective prompted the Songwriters Guild of America this week to submit a new series of comments to the US Copyright Office. Chiefly, the SGA is asking the Copyright Office to closely oversee the distribution of unmatched royalties. These are royalties due to songwriters and composers who are not easily found for distribution. Should these creators not be found, potentially hundreds of millions owed to creators would be distributed, instead, to the big-money interests who are represented on the MLC.

Under the recently passed Music Modernization Act of 2018, it was decided that a Mechanical Licensing Collective would be responsible for finding creators who are due royalty monies that have not yet been distributed. However, should those creators (or their heirs) not be found within a certain time frame, the MLC also allows for those royalties to be distributed -- instead -- on a "market-share" basis to the same big-money interests charged with finding those creators. The SGA feels this creates an obvious conflict of interest and, at the invitation of the Register of Copyrights, the SGA spoke out on this and other issues. 

Full comments can be found here.  Readers may contact the Copyright Office here.

“Due to the inherent and sometimes unavoidable conflicts of interest surrounding the formation and activities of the MLC,” stated SGA president and songwriter Rick Carnes, "the music creator community believes that the highest degree of scrutiny must be applied by the US Government in overseeing MLC activities. We are imploring the Copyright Office to protect the little guys -- the creators and their families," he added.

Under the new law, potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in songwriter and composer royalties will be at stake on an annual basis. To avoid conflicts of interest within the MLC, Congress wisely placed the responsibility of evaluating MLC activities with the US Copyright Office. "The SGA fully supports the efforts of the Register of Copyrights to formulate regulations that protect the rights of music creators as Congress intends," said Carnes. "We will work with the Office to help ensure it can vigorously and effectively perform its oversight functions.”

Specifically, the comments filed by SGA include requests for regulations governing the MLC that mandate:

• Recognition of the obvious necessity for inclusion of songwriter and composer contact information in the MLC Musical Works Database; 
• Adoption of internal MLC rules requiring adherence by board and committee members to strict conflict-of-interest policies;
• Inclusion in the MLC bylaws of a process for replacing music-creator board and committee members that includes meaningful music-creator community participation in the selection process without music publisher interference; 
• Review and approval by the USCO and the Librarian of Congress of all such music-creator candidates and appointees. “To do otherwise,” stated Carnes, "would be akin to empowering the wolves to select the watchdogs that purportedly guard the sheep”; 
• The immediate compilation, calculation and publication of the aggregate amounts of unmatched royalties being held or already transferred to the MLC by digital music distributors, and to update such information on an ongoing basis; and finally 
• The allocation of sufficient funds specifically enumerated in the MLC budget to be utilized solely for mounting a bona fide, global effort to identify unmatched royalties. 

SGA also applauded the recent appointment of Maria Strong to serve as Acting US Register of Copyrights, and urged the Librarian of Congress to select as permanent Register a person especially knowledgeable about -- and sympathetic to the rights of -- the creator and author community. "Should Ms. Strong refuse a permanent position as Register, we ask that whoever fills that role be free of conflicts of interest and have no prior affiliation with digital distributors, big tech, and/or corporate copyright owners (and their respective big-money trade associations)," added Carnes.   

Finally, the SGA suggested that the Copyright Office exercise diligent oversight in reviewing certain recent MLC initiatives, including the awarding of contracts to potentially controversial third parties such as The Harry Fox Agency and ConsenSys. It also asked for an investigation into the sudden withdrawal from participation on the MLC Unclaimed Royalties Oversight Committee of songwriter, recording artist and music-creator activist David Lowery.

“SGA’s intended role in this process,” concluded Carnes “is to serve as an independent monitor of MLC activities, working with the US Copyright Office and other US Government agencies in ensuring that the rights and interests of music creators under the MMA are fully observed. We have operated as an organization for over 85 years with a two-word mission statement: Protect Songwriters. And that is exactly what we intend to do in this case.”