{"id":301,"date":"2019-06-24T00:10:25","date_gmt":"2019-06-24T00:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/?post_type=podcast&p=301"},"modified":"2026-01-29T16:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:37:43","slug":"kyra-folk-farber-breaks-down-the-music-modernization-act","status":"publish","type":"podcast","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/podcast\/kyra-folk-farber-breaks-down-the-music-modernization-act\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyra Folk-Farber Breaks Down the Music Modernization Act"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kyra<\/strong><\/p>\n

Transcript:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sara:<\/strong>\u00a0Welcome to an episode of copyright chat today we have a guest with us remotely\u2014Kyra Folk-Farber. Kyra Folk-Farber is the head of the music library and chair of the library\u2019s copyright advisory committee at the University of California Santa Barbara and she also serves as the chair of the Music Library Associations\u2019 legislation committee. Welcome and thank you for joining us Kyra.<\/p>\n

Kyra<\/strong>: Thank you for having me.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>So today I wanted to talk to you about the Music Modernization Act. It\u2019s been kind of a buzz in the copyright community and I\u2019m sure in the music community as well. Can you give a rundown, a little bit, of what the Music Modernization Act entails?<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, absolutely. So, there are 3 parts to the Music Modernization Act and it\u2019s a really exciting amendment. It\u2019s the biggest change to copyright law in decades and what it\u2014it means different things for different people, so\u2026 and it\u2019s the idea of the law, is that it\u2019s sort of supposed to help a lot of different communities including musicians and including the public\u2014public interest and including music industry folks as well so\u2026 And the way that it does that is that the\u00a0first part of the act we have\u2014it\u2019s about licensing. And the 2nd part is the part that I really want to talk about today and that\u2019s the Classics Protection and Access. And what that does is federalizes copyright law for pre-1972 sound recordings and gives them a public domain term. So, it used to be that pre-1972 sound recordings were under state laws, and those varied a lot, and it was a really difficult thing to figure out whether\u2014you know\u2014whether uses were legal. But now that they\u2019re\u2014those materials are federalized it means that they have federal exemptions. So, they, you can, you know apply fair use to them, you can use them in the classroom under certain conditions and libraries and archives can reproduce them under certain conditions. So that\u2019s really, really exciting, because that that\u2019s really good for the public, that means the public can have a lot better access to pre-1972 sound recordings and the public domain term means that at some point in the future, all of these pre-1972 sound recordings are going to go into the public domain. And that wasn\u2019t the case before. So those are two really exciting pieces of the law for the public.<\/p>\n

Sara:<\/strong>\u00a0So, under the law before, the state copyright laws were pretty much interminable? For those sound recordings? And so now we at least have an and date. Although, the end date is pretty far off isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>So,\u00a0for some of this\u2014so yeah\u2014like, so, all\u2026 ultimately all of the sound recordings will go into the public domain in\u2026 I\u2019m trying to remember the\u2026in 2067 (that\u2019s a long way away), but if they\u2019re before 1923, then they\u2019ll go into the public domain in 2021. And then if they\u2019re before 1946 and after \u201923, then\u00a0they\u2019ll go into the public domain 100 years from publication. So, there\u2019s, you know, there\u2019s different terms. It\u2019s called\u2014they go in different stages into the public domain\u2014it\u2019s called \u201cphased entry public domain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>And there\u2019s a fairly good explanation of this these changes on the Copyright Office\u2019s website, right?<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Yeah, absolutely. You don\u2019t have to dig through the law to understand all of this, because there\u2019s actually a really nice rundown of the whole Music Modernization Acton Copyright.gov<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>Awesome.\u00a0So, what does this mean for libraries in particular and music usage through, say academic libraries?<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>So, you know, it\u2019s a really good thing, especially for scholarship, because, you know, sound recordings are such an important part of our culture, and so when you have people that are able to study sound recordings just as they study other materials, just as you can use the books in a library, then, you know, it makes it easier for people to do the scholarship that\u2019s so important, right? And the other thing is that people, you know, people love to listen to old recordings, so this isn\u2019t just for scholars, this is for people to come and use these old recordings and you know, use them for their own interest just as they would use the library. You know and so, I don\u2019t know if you know people know the ins-and-outs of what\u2019s legal and what\u2019s not before the Music Modernization Act, right? But there\u2019s always this sort of psychological aspect, I think to\u2014you know\u2014if there\u2019s something that you\u2019re not sure whether it\u2019s legal or not (which was a lot of times the case with pre-1972 sound recordings, because of state laws being so confusing), you know, people avoid use using things. And now we can we can firmly say, well, you know what, this is OK. One of the one of the big kind of changes is a part of the law called \u201c108H\u201d and what that means is that\u2014it\u00a0means that all pre-1972 sound recordings. Can go under Section 108. So it used to be that under Section 108H, which allows reproduction, distribution, performance, and display by libraries and archives of their materials that were ins certain\u2026like in the last number of years of their copyright term, those could be used for preservation or scholars for research. Now that applies to all pre-1972 sound recordings. So that\u2019s a really important part of the law and that I think will be a boon for scholarship.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>So, all work that\u2019s now swept into this federal copyright law for sound recordings pre-1972, if a library is using it for scholarship or research and things of that sort, then they don\u2019t have to worry about the copyright issues.<\/p>\n

Kyra:<\/strong>\u00a0Exactly. Yeah.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s great, because that\u2019s a big relief for copyright. Nerds, such as myself who worry about\u2014especially like you were saying before, under different state laws, it was very confusing, because you know, Texas might say one thing, and New York might say another thing and now at least we know what the answer is because there\u2019s one law to look at.<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Right.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>So this is a relatively new law. I wonder if you\u2019ve seen any of the impact of the law so far, and kind of what you think might be the impact in the future.<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Well, again, I think like there have\u2026. There\u2019s been a lot of confusion around pre-1972 sound recordings and there\u2019s been a lot of advocacy to make this happen over decades and decades from different associations, and it\u2019s sort of been under the radar, I think. And it\u2019s still a little bit under the radar, that\u2019s why I\u2019m so glad that you\u2019re, you know talking about this for this podcast, because I think it\u2019s important that people know what\u2019s going on. And so I hope that, like, this will kind of get out there, and so that people know, well now, you know, if I want to do scholarship on pre-1972 sound recordings I have a lot more opportunities to do that without worrying too much, because of these new laws. And, you know, and it\u2019s also, we\u2019ll see kind of what happens in terms of language around some of the other parts of the law so\u2026. and also 108H, because we have to figure out\u2014you know\u2014the Copyright Office has put out, you know, questions to the public, for public comment on how they\u2019re going to implement the law, and different organizations have been working on making suggestions, and those organizations are on sort of different sides of the law, really. So, you know, we have people on the side that want public interest, and we have the music industry side. And again, this law is for everybody, and they want to make everybody happy. And so they\u2019re sort of figuring out how, for example, if you\u2019re using a recording for a certain use, for example, for scholarship, not for you know commercial exploitation\u2014how are you going to prove to the copyright office that you\u2019ve used it in the right way right and how are you going to prove that you\u2019ve done a search to make sure that that you\u2019re not using a recording that\u2019s available for commercial use (because that\u2019s another thing that they have changed). So, there are still a lot of ins-and-outs that have to be figured out and will probably take a few years, and there may be also some more advocacy for shorter public domain terms in the future.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>Right, yeah. So, there\u2019s a lot. There\u2019s a lot going on, it sounds like. And there\u2019s a lot to follow. And I\u2019ve been kind of following myself, those guidelines that were put out by the U.S. Copyright Office, like you said, so that an individual, who wishes to use a song could kind of show that they\u2019ve done a good faith search, that they can\u2019t locate someone to ask permission to use a song for instance. And I think that\u2019s a really interesting concept, just \u201cWhere do you look?\u201d Right? One of the places I think they said to look was YouTube and some folks found that kind of surprising, because YouTube doesn\u2019t usually do copyright checks, right?<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Well, you know, it\u2019s interesting YouTube\u2026They\u2019re like very litigious, actually, and they just take down everything. So I know that\u2014I know of people like musician friends who put up their own albums on YouTube, because there were going to make any money off of it anyway, and so it\u2019s on to put it out there and YouTube, said \u201cNo, you can\u2019t, because it\u2019s under copyright.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>I guess I misstated that. They\u00a0do\u00a0<\/em>do copyright checks in\u00a0the sense of like, trying to take things down, but they don\u2019t necessarily have a registry of copyright owners, which is what people, you would think, would be looking for when trying to figure out who owns the song.<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Right and that\u2019s the\u2014and that\u2019s another part of this\u2014of the Music Modernization Act that. That\u2019s the 1st part of it, the licensing part. So now there\u2019s going to be, you know, I won\u2019t go into this into too much detail on this one, because it\u2019s a bit like\u2026wordy, but basically, digital service providers are going to fund a mechanical licensing collective, and\u00a0 that will be governed by songwr\u2014and published by independent songwriters. And a mechanical licensing collective is going to get\u2014it\u2019s going to create a blank mechanically\u2014or create blanket mechanical licenses for the digital service providers. And so, they\u2019re going to basically create a huge database and that will\u00a0connect songwriters` or publishers with songs, and also if there are unclaimed songs, that will allow people to claim them. So that\u2019s the part, that\u2019s really good for musicians and for the music industry where you, know there\u2019s been this battle with the digital service providers, and so now this will allow, for example, maybe an independent songwriter can claim royalties on their songs.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>Awesome.\u00a0Well, I think this has been really useful, and to kind of understand where this Music Modernization came from and where it\u2019s going and how it\u2019s helpful for librarians. I just thank you for kind of giving us a little glimpse into it and I know you did a Copy Talk on a similar topic with the American Library Association, so I encourage people who are listening here to look for that as well, and I will put a link up with this episode so that folks can find that as well.<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>I might slide you all some resources if people want to do some further reading on this.<\/p>\n

Sara:\u00a0<\/strong>Oh yeah, great! Well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today and I hope that folks have learned something about this new Music Modernization Act, which of course is still developing, and check (if you really want to learn more) the Copyright Office is a really good, accurate source of information as well about the Music Modernization Act. Thanks a lot for talking to me today.<\/p>\n

Kyra:\u00a0<\/strong>Thank you so much Sara.<\/p>\n

Links for items of interest from the episode:<\/p>\n

May 2019 ALA CopyTalk on the MMA<\/a><\/p>\n

Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act, H.R. 1551, Pub. L. 115-264 (2018)<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright.gov\u2019s rundown of the Music Modernization Act<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright and the Music Modernization Act by Eric Harbeson<\/a><\/p>\n

How Congress can right a wrong for music released before 1972 by Glenn Peoples<\/a><\/p>\n

Federal Register \u2013 Comments on Proposed Rule for Noncommercial Use of Pre-1972 Sound Recordings That Are Not Being Commercially Exploited<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transcript: Sara:\u00a0Welcome to an episode of copyright chat today we have a guest with us remotely\u2014Kyra Folk-Farber. Kyra Folk-Farber is the head of the music library and chair of the library\u2019s copyright advisory committee at the University of California Santa Barbara and she also serves as the chair of the Music Library Associations\u2019 legislation committee. […]","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"http:\/\/flash.atlas.illinois.edu\/media\/lib\/CopyrightChatPodcast\/CopyrightChatPodcast_Folk-Farber.mp3","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"12.16M","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"2019-06-24 00:10:25","explicit":"","block":""},"tags":[],"series":[11],"class_list":["post-301","podcast","type-podcast","status-publish","hentry","series-copyright-chat"],"acf":[],"episode_featured_image":false,"episode_player_image":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/98\/2024\/02\/chat_orange_1400.png","download_link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/podcast-download\/301\/kyra-folk-farber-breaks-down-the-music-modernization-act.mp3","player_link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/podcast-player\/301\/kyra-folk-farber-breaks-down-the-music-modernization-act.mp3","audio_player":null,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/scholarlycommunications\/feed\/podcast\/copyright-chat","embedCode":"

Kyra Folk-Farber Breaks Down the Music Modernization Act<\/a><\/blockquote>