Singing The Same Song: 1962 Article Demands Stricter Copyright To Stop Jukebox Loophole
from the sound-familiar? dept
With the news of the latest push by the RIAA to close the "radio loophole" to squeeze more money out of their music, it's worth noting that this is really nothing new. The industry has been doing it for ages. Thanks to Tim Lee and Matthew Yglesias for pointing to an article from 1962 where (oh no!) the industry was claiming that copyright law needed to be strengthened to deal with greedy business owners who weren't paying their fair share every time their jukeboxes played a song. Apparently there was something of a "jukebox exception" in royalty rates, where jukebox owners only needed to pay for the records they bought, and not each time they were played. Luckily, the law was changed in 1976, allowing the recording industry to survive. Otherwise, it surely would have perished.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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The jukebox industry did not die, it changed and adapted itself to new technologies over the years.
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RIAA
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Re: RIAA
I'm pretty sure that you can't count to infinity.
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Err wait, the second thing would never, ever happen.
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I've seen countless ones in movies and TV, but never in real life.
The closest I've seen are those multi-disc changers and that's only in peoples homes.
...weird.
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Why can't
I think the theme would be, they cry, scream and sue every time anything that remotely has the wiff.... of being in contact with... anything that may or may not threaten 'the Artist' (Read:their monopoly).
Then submit it to congress or something...just a thought
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Rockin' (and rumblin') around the Clock
Well, now all of that has changed! (innocence, that is)
Coming to a jukejoint near you...
The RIAA Teamsters vs. The Jukebox Syndicate!
***LIVE on pay-per-view***
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And the digital ones are awesome. I've spent hours on it putting obscure band names into them to try and find one it doesn't have, and it always has them.
ALWAYS.
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The entertainment industry also needs to understand they aren't just competing amongst themselves, but with other industries as well. I read somewhere that food prices have risen 4% in the past month. And gas has risen over $1 since the election in November. That's an extra $15 every two weeks the oil companies are getting of my money. $15? Hey isn't that the price of a CD? I could be buying an extra CD every two weeks if the oil companies weren't gouging the consumers at the pumps.
And I for one (and most people I know as well) are not going to work lots of overtime to earn that money back to spend on someone who wants to live off of work they did 30 years ago (or whom merely can't compete in the marketplace anymore). There's no law saying you get the privilege of making a living doing what you like to do. Try getting a job at Walmart. I can guarantee most of the people working their aren't doing so for the sheer pleasure of it.
Here's an idea: Maybe the RIAA should sue Exxon for taking money away from them by jacking their prices. Now that would be amusing.
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Check the roadhouse
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Thieving Pirates of '76
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