ASCAP Says Future 'At Stake'

Arguing that its own viability is at stake, the American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers spelled out on Monday the basis for its appeals of two federal court rulings in its bitter legal dispute with internet radio company Pandora, according to The Tenneassean.

ASCAP filed the legal brief last week and a redacted version was unsealed in federal court on Monday.

At stake for the music industry are two enormous issues: the federally-regulated rates that the Internet's leading radio service must pay to songwriters and publishing companies, and possibly the very future of the performance rights organizations which have collected and distributed performance royalties for over 100 years.

ASCAP is seeking to overturn the lower court's ruling that publishing companies must enter into all-or-nothing licensing deals. Major publishers pursued withdrawing their digital rights in order to privately negotiate more favorable deals with Pandora.

And ASCAP is also seeking to overturn the rate court's ruling that Pandora must pay 1.85 percent of its revenue to the performance rights organization's member songwriters and publishers. ASCAP sought a high-end payment of 3 percent of Pandora's revenues.

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