Debbie Hennessey: Blog

The Copyright Alliance put out the notice that President Obama's Administration was asking for feedback in regards to intellectual property infringement. Here is the letter I sent.  -  dh

Dear Ms. Espinel,

The Copyright Alliance has informed me of this welcome invitation from the Obama Administration to share my thoughts on my rights as a creator. I was very happy to hear that President Obama had created position such as yours. It is so important that all Americans understand the importance of our intellectual properties and that we protect our rights as creators.

As an independent music creator I have seen the drastic changes that the lack of understanding and protection has taken on my particular industry. I’m sure you’ve heard plenty from the few remaining major record labels, the 3 performance rights agencies, etc. but let me give you a more personal take from an independent music creator. I have no major label affiliation, no managers, no handlers, and my performance rights organization isn’t really interested in the vast majority of their members because they only track the major radio, TV and internet stations for the more major writers. Talk about “to big to fail” the music industry should have been a wake up call for all the other industries in American. Like any major industrial revolution the explosion of the internet has has both positive and negative effects on the music industry and the world. It opened doors for many artists but at the cost of piracy and file sharing and rarely translates into sales that the creator could live off of.

Public Education
I think that would be my first suggestion. Some sort of public educational campaign to make more Americans aware of what intellectual property is, why copyrights are so important and how to protect them. There are too many people who don’t understand even the basics. When RIAA was going after individuals for file sharing I heard too many times to count, usually some kid in college who expected to be compensated with a high paying job when they graduated but they didn’t see the big deal with stealing music. What about the musician, artist, photographer, writer, who has has put in years of study and training and paying dues to create that one piece of music, art, etc., why should only doctors, lawyers and the like be compensated? We really need to put more value on our creative products. Because, they are products, just like the car, the computer, etc. Perhaps one way would be a web based campaign with buttons that musicians could put on their websites that would take people back to a page that explains the history, value and protection of copyrights.

Pass Bill HR848
As you know there are two copyrights that protect music creators, the PA for the actual creation of the musical composition and the SA for the actual recorded version of that composition. The performance rights agencies were created to collect the royalty for the PA portion of the composition, currently set at $.095 per play and/or sale split between all writers and publishers. There is no collection agency or pay per play for the SA. The idea being the owner of the SA can sell “physical” copies of the recording for the industry standard price, currently about $.99 per song. Physical now meaning a digital copy with no real way to protect it from multiple uses.

In regards to the SA copyright and the recorded version of a composition, for over 80 years corporate radio has not paid one cent to recording artists when they play their songs over the air - the same songs that attract millions of listeners and millions of advertising dollars to their stations. This is the only business that gets away with this. Can you think of any other business that doesn’t have to pay its suppliers for their product? Can you imagine grocery stores not paying farmers for their fruits and veggies or your favorite Target expecting to get all their various products at no cost?

Now, just like radio before it internet stations and websites believe that they are giving valuable exposure to artist that will sell cds. “Put all your music up on our site and we’ll get you tons of exposure...blah, blah, blah”. There are thousands of these sites and just like radio they sell advertising by using the content of music to draw those advertisers in. They do not compensate the musicians and too many times they build up those sites and sell them for millions – MySpace being the perfect example of one of those sites. I’m all for capitalism, but you've got to pay for the materials to make your product whether it’s widgets, cars or a website.

PRO’s need to move into the digital age & Creating music isn’t cheap
Yes, I chose music. Well, really as with anything creative it chose me. I could no more stop making music than stop breathing but that being said, shouldn’t I be compensated fairly for the product I create? It takes a lot of money to go from writing a song to a finished product. Costs that include recording studio, engineer, producer, musicians, artwork, disk manufacturing, promotion including radio promoters, pr people, etc. I can assure you, none of these people work for free nor should they. When I use a song I didn’t write I pay the PA owner their fair share of royalties in advance and I don’t always make that money back. As an independent recording artist, I have to pay for it all out of my own pocket and that is fine. I do it knowing that I will have a product to sell when I’m done. Unfortunately, the minute I release that product, there’s not a lot of protection out there to insure that I will be compensated. Nor does my PRO track the legit plays that I do have. The reality is that even as an award winning artist, a voting member of the NARAS/Grammy’s, and someone who’s music has been played on internet and broadcast radio all over the world since 2002, I have not been compensated for all that usage of my intellectual product as either a PA or SA holder. My PRO only “polls” major media outlets to get an idea of what is being played and then makes royalty payments based on that. That doesn’t do most independent artist any good at all. You could say, it’s the music business, it’s the world’s biggest crap shoot. Many factors go into what will and won’t be successful when you are talking about any kind of art and that’s ok. But when people use music, art, etc. to make a new product that they are charging for the creator of that music should be protected. The copyright is that protection. It’s just the beginning but it’s a good start. Let’s get all Americans to understand the value of our intellectual property. Let’s get the PRO’s to invest in technology that will track the airplay of ALL of their writer members.

Thank you for your consideration,
Debbie Hennessey
Los Angeles, CA
www.debbiehennessey.com