Our local paper ran an article today in its "opinion" section. It is entitled "The piper must be paid" and was written by T Bone Burnett, who the paper informs us is a 13-time Grammy Award-winning musician and songwriter. Here are some excerpts. "For the last 20 years we have witnessed an assault on the arts by the technological community - especially when it comes to music. This devaluation is troubling because music is not only the creation of people who make this art; it is how they make a living.....
It turns out that recordings made before 1972 are protected by state law and newer recordings are protected by federal law..It shouldn't take a lawsuit or a bipartisan bill introduced in Congress last week to make clear that businesses that include pre-1972 recordings in the playlists they deliver to their customers should pay the creators who brought those recordings to life."