The CLASSICS Act Would Update Pre-1972 Law

Yesterday, Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and John Kennedy (R-LA) introduced the Compensating Legacy Artists for their Songs, Service, & Important Contributions to Society Act, or CLASSICS Act. This bipartisan legislation would require digital services to pay copyright holders and artists for the use of sound recordings made before February 15, 1972. Current federal copyright law fails to provide important copyright protections to music artists and other copyright holders in sound recordings made before 1972. As a result, copyright holders do not enjoy the same right under federal law to receive royalties for public performances of pre-1972 sound recordings that others enjoy for later recordings. 

In this July 2017 blog, FSF Senior Fellow Seth Cooper discusses the House version of this bill, also called the CLASSICS Act, and how it would protect the rights of copyright holders of pre-1972 sound recordings.