Audio Video News

Pay the Musicians, Already

Mark Fleischmann  |  Nov 2, 2017

Republicans and Democrats may not agree on much, but at least one member of each party would like to see musicians get paid royalties on musical works produced before 1972.

Reps. Darryl Issa (R-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) are cosponsoring the Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, and Important Contributions to Society Act, a.k.a. the Classics Act. The issue has been bouncing around the courts, notably in a lawsuit by Flo & Eddie, composers of the Turtles hit “Happy Together,” who sued SiriusXM for using that and other songs without paying the artists. A circuit court decision favored the broadcaster.

The Classics Act is “an important and overdue fix to the law that will help settle years of litigation and restore some equity to this inexplicable gap in our copyright system,” said Rep. Issa.

COMMENTS
Billy's picture
Submitted by Billy on November 2, 2017 - 5:39pm

Come on guys, it has been 50 years, time to stop milking the cash cow and tell your great grand kids to get a real job already. Something that old should be in the public domain. Just my opinion. BTW, great song, really enjoy it. I have PURCHASED it more then once now, so I am not a leach.

empirelvr's picture
Submitted by empirelvr on November 22, 2017 - 6:39am

Flo and Eddie (a/k/a Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman)did NOT write "Happy Together." The song was written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon.

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