Congress trying to expand copyright on sound recordings

Congress is considering S.2823 and H.3301, which would extend some cherry-picked parts of federal copyright to cover sound recordings made between 1923 and 1972. It would force streaming services to get licenses for those recordings, even though all that does is create a new subsidy for rightsholders (which are usually record labels and not artists) and make it harder for music fans to listen to old recordings.  These bills would make it harder to get recordings into the public domain and would be a subsidy to wealthy record companies at our expense.

We oppose these bills and urge you to contact your House Reps. and Senators and urge them to oppose these bills. Contact us if you can help organize citizen meetings with Congress members.