[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 7]
[House]
[Pages 9731-9732]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               WE SHOULD PROTECT ARTISTS AND SONGWRITERS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for 5 minutes.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 
the DMCA, as it is commonly known here in this Chamber, is nearly 20 
years old.
  Now, just as a reminder, 20 years ago, Google was being born, 
Americans were out dancing the ``Macarena,'' and they were holding cell 
phones that were the size of bricks. That was 20 years ago.
  Tech companies like YouTube may have changed the way Americans 
consume music, but our laws have not kept pace to protect the 
songwriters and the artists who actually create that music.
  This week, 180 musical artists and songwriters, including Taylor 
Swift, Paul McCartney, The Black Keys, and the bands Chicago and U2, 
sent a letter to Congress calling for the reform of the 1998 Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a copy of this letter.

       Dear Congress: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) 
     is broken and no longer works for creators.
       As songwriters and artists who are a vital contributing 
     force to the U.S. and to American exports around the world, 
     we are writing to express our concern about the ability of 
     the next generation of creators to earn a living. The 
     existing laws threaten the continued viability of songwriters 
     and recording artists to survive from the creation of music. 
     Aspiring creators shouldn't have to decide between making 
     music and making a living. Please protect them.
       One of the biggest problems confronting songwriters and 
     recording artists today is the Digital Millennium Copyright 
     Act. This law was written and passed in an era that is 
     technologically out-of-date compared to the era in which we 
     live. It has allowed major tech companies to grow and 
     generate huge profits by creating ease of use for consumers 
     to carry almost every recorded song in history in their 
     pocket via a smartphone, while songwriters' and artists' 
     earnings continue to diminish. Music consumption has 
     skyrocketed, but the monies earned by individual writers and 
     artists for that consumption has plummeted.
       The DMCA simply doesn't work. It's impossible for tens of 
     thousands of individual songwriters and artists to muster the 
     resources necessary to comply with its application. The tech 
     companies who benefit from the DMCA today were not the 
     intended protectorate when it was signed into law nearly two 
     decades ago. We ask you to enact sensible reform that 
     balances the interests of creators with the interests of the 
     companies who exploit music for their financial enrichment. 
     It's only then that consumers will truly benefit.

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Here is the problem: the DMCA safe harbor provision.
  What this does, YouTube has created a platform where anyone with a 
smartphone can access nearly any song ever recorded. Often this content 
is infringed, and it does not--does not--compensate the artist who 
created it.
  The safe harbor provision immunizes YouTube from claims of copyright 
infringement if it removes the infringing content in a timely fashion 
after YouTube has been notified by an artist or a record company. With 
millions of songs on YouTube, it is really impossible.
  Grammy-winning jazz/classical composer Maria Schneider has said the 
following about the DMCA: ``The DMCA makes it my responsibility to 
police the entire Internet on a daily basis. As fast as I take my music 
down, it reappears again on the same site like an endless Whac-A-Mole 
game.''
  This not only threatens the vitality of songwriters but the economic 
contributions they make in our communities. Take my home area in 
Tennessee. A 2012 study shows that in Nashville itself the music 
industry is a $5.5 billion asset to the economy. Looking at the entire 
middle Tennessee region, it is $9.7 billion.
  This is a fundamental American principle. If you make something, if 
you create something, it belongs to you. In no other walk of life do we 
allow people to steal the work of others and turn a blind eye, except 
when it comes to songwriters and entertainers.
  Our friends in the tech industry, who do little to nothing to see 
that the songwriter is protected on their platforms, are the first ones 
to complain if one of their patents is slightly infringed upon. So I 
ask them, why are their creations deserving of protection but the 
creations of others are not? It is unfair, and they know it.
  But creators are not going to keep taking it. The times, they are a-
changin', as Bob Dylan would say. That is why, for years, I have sought 
to protect music creators through legislation, like the Fair Play Fair 
Pay Act that Representative Nadler and I are working on and the 
Songwriter Equity Act.
  To our friends in the tech industry, I say this: willful blindness or 
situational ethics aren't okay; ignorance and denial, not acceptable; 
and refusing to pay people for their work is unfair, and it really 
needs to stop.
  This is about fairness, and it is about honoring the law by enforcing 
the law. It is that simple.

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