[Organizers] ASCAP and BMI

[Jeff Raymond via Organizers]

As I understand it various agents who work for a commission send out
letters dunning folks for ASCAP fees. This is quasi legal black mail as
mentioned by previous respondents many Contradance tune authors have never
seen an ASCAP check.
One can compose a letter that state all material played is copywriter free
traditional tunes are played with express permission from the copywriter
holder.
This of course is a premise, I imagine that someone somewhere holds a copy
write on a version of Old Joe Clark.
Various dance troupe I've been associated with have found ways to deflect
the leaches from sending letters to ignoring them.
If you can imagine how much money they have accrued through this extortion
it would be tough to fight them if you were a business but if you are a
501(c)3 educational organization you have a chance to ignore them.
If you gain insights please share them!
Jeff Raymond
On Jun 16, 2016 9:24 AM, "Jeff Kaufman via Organizers" <
organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 15, 2016 at 2:29 PM, Amy Carroll via Organizers
> <organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> >
> > Do not think that because it's a traditional dance form that the
> > music is all public domain.  A huge amount of contradance
> > repertoire is copyrighted material.  If you think otherwise, I
> > suggest paging through any of the Portland Collection books
> > (common contradance repertoire) and looking for the copyright
> > symbol.
>
> While most tunes played for contra dances are copyrighted, very few of
> those are covered by ASCAP or BMI.  Those agencies can only give you a
> license for the music they manage the rights for.
>
> Nearly all contra dance music, however, is written by people who would
> like their music to be played at dances and don't want to limit that,
> so unless someone has asked that others not play their tunes I
> wouldn't worry about infringement there.
>
> (For making CDs, though, you definitely need to write to people, offer
> to pay them, and her permission.)
>
> >
> > Thing is, if you want the artists who hold the copyright getting paid,
> > you have to submit set lists to ascap and bmi.  That is the troublesome
> > part, and you can ask the artists to give one to you if they want. It
> > doesn't change what you owe ASCAP and BMI  it just means they
> > have to redistribute the funds.
> >
>
> Even if you do this, no money will go to the large majority of contra
> dance tune authors who don't participate in ASCAP/BMI.
>
> Jeff
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