Category: DOJ Arrogance

Repost: The MTP Podcast: The Consequences of DOJ’s New Rule on 100% Licensing with David Lowery, Steve Winogradsky and Chris Castle

The Department of Justice–once again doing its best to crush small business–has appealed the BMI ruling (copy of DOJ appeal here).  Yes…she’s baaack….Remember DOJ Antitrust lawyer and ex-Googler Renata Hesse?  (aka “Defendant“)

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Hesse

Hesse’s reward for sticking the shiv into songwriters was a partnership with big bucks at the DC Office of Sullivan & Cromwell, aka the gold plated revolving door waiting room where she proudly lists her expertise in “Intellectual Property”.  She left out “Destroying Lives of People Who Can’t Fight Back”.

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And then of course there’s shiv meister David C. Kully, his bad self, now a partner at Holland & Knight who did Hesse’s dirty work and really did the day to day on fufilling Hesse’s inexplicable obsession with screwing songwriters to the wall.  Kully encouraged songwriters to leave ASCAP if they didn’t like the DOJ’s ruling on 100% licensing.

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Why is this man smiling?

Originally posted on MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY: David Lowery, Steve Winogradsky and Chris Castle discuss the implications of the new rule by the U.S. Department of Justice re-interpreting the ASCAP and BMI consent decrees to require 100% licensing and prohibiting partial withdrawal. David Lowery is the founder of Cracker and Camper van Beethoven, leading artist rights…

via The MTP Podcast: The Consequences of DOJ’s New Rule on 100% Licensing with David Lowery, Steve Winogradsky and Chris Castle — MUSIC • TECHNOLOGY • POLICY

 

@davidclowery: Don’t You Have More Important Things to Do? DOJ Should Drop the 100% Licensing Push

Now that most of the DOJ lawyers who pushed the 100% licensing rule on songwriters are gone, who’s gonna deal with all those feral cats that former Acting Assistant Attorney General Renata Hesse was feeding? Last year, in what can only be described as an elaborate Kabuki, a small group of DOJ lawyers led by […]

via Don’t You Have More Important Things to Do? DOJ Should Drop the 100% Licensing Push — The Trichordist

How President Trump Can Give Songwriters and Publishers Immediate Relief from DOJ and LOC Overreach — Music Tech Solutions

The Obama Department of Justice filed notice on November 11 that it intended to use the peoples money to appeal BMI Rate Court Judge Louis Stanton’s devastating ruling against the DOJ’s bizarre position on “100% licensing”. Professor Steve Winogradsky and I summarized the results of the ruling in this post. Aside from the terrible legal […]

via How President Trump Can Give Songwriters and Publishers Immediate Relief from DOJ and LOC Overreach — Music Tech Solutions

Department of Justice Appeals 100% Licensing Ruling

Editor Charlie sez: Remember that the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division came up with a very Googley fairy tale about 100% licensing?  Remember how the DOJ lost that case in the BMI Rate Court?  

Now the U.S. government is appealing the case from the BMI Rate Court to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to try to stick it to songwriters even harder.

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@davidclowery: Electioneering Over, Songwriters No Longer Needed, Obama DOJ Gets Back to Suing Songwriters for Google

Obama like many political leaders has relied upon songwriters to shape his public persona and image.  But Obama has also allowed his antitrust division to relentlessly persecute songwriters in ways that benefit Silicon Valley firms that are among his largest campaign donors. 

Politicians, especially democratic politicians have always appealed to songwriters and performers for help campaigning and in shaping their images.  But once the election is over we never see anything in return. Not even a “thank you.”  But our long running abusive relationship with politicians seems to have hit a new low. It appears the Obama DOJ purposely waited until after all those celebrity/songwriter/performer campaign rallies were finished before they renewed their “100% licensing” legal crusade against songwriter non-profits BMI and ASCAP.

And I do mean “purposely waited.”  Let me explain.

Read the post on The Trichordist