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E-mail Representative Maffei
We are hopeful that the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848) will come up for a vote in the House Judiciary Committee soon. Your representative, Congressman Maffei, is a member of this Committee. It is vitally important that you send a letter to Representative Dan Maffei (D-NY-25) and ask him to vote in favor of the Performance Rights Act. This vote is the first step toward securing a full performance right in sound recordings. Representative Maffei’s vote is crucial in ensuring that musicians all over the country get what they deserve.
The Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848) will finally give musicians a full performance right for any song played over terrestrial AM/FM radio. The passage of this legislation will put money in musicians’ pockets by rectifying a longstanding loophole in federal copyright regulations.
Please e-mail Representative Maffei urging him to support H.R. 848. We need you to contact his office as soon as possible and let him know that the musicians of Syracuse and the surrounding areas deserve a full performance right.
| Sample Letter for Campaign |
Subject: Please Support the Performance Rights Act
Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,
I am a constituent and a professional musician. I am writing to ask you to support H.R. 848, the Performance Rights Act, which ensures that musicians receive fair compensation when AFM/FM radio broadcasts our work.
Commercial radio stations broadcast millions of recordings a year. Those recordings attract listeners and enable AM/FM radio, last year, to sell $16 billion in advertisements. However, because of a loophole in our copyright laws, AM/FM radio stations are exempt from paying the musicians whose work is used to lure listeners. The United States is the only developed nation not to require that musicians are compensated fairly when their work is used by AM/FM radio. And in the U.S., only AM/FM radio gets a free pass. Internet radio, satellite radio (XM/Sirius) and cable radio all pay musicians.
Most musicians are not rich celebrities but hardworking men and women trying to cobble together a living from various income streams. The Performance Rights Act ensures that musicians are fairly compensated, while protecting small and public radio stations by limiting the fees they pay.
The Performance Rights Act is also supported by the AFL-CIO and a number of other unions, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Steel Workers (USW), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the International Association of Firefighters (IAFF) and the Laborers' International Union of North America (LiUNA).
Sincerely,
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