Music Industry Groups In Harmony In Calling For Support From Trump

A wide array of music industry groups, from Christian to classical, rhythm & blues to movie soundtracks, and everything in between sent a letter to United States President-Elect Donald Trump urging him to take their intellectual property rights into consideration when he meets with technology industry leaders on 14 December.

“As you meet tomorrow with some of the world’s major corporate technology executives, we wanted to
highlight some points that are assuring the continued dynamism of music as one of America’s national
treasures,” the 19 groups wrote.

Arguments include that “music powers economic growth”, “drives innovation”, and that tech companies don’t always have rights holders’ interests at heart.

“Search engines, user upload content platforms, hosting companies, and domain name registrars and registries should follow others’ example to effectively stop theft and assure fair payment,” they said.

“Further,” added the music groups, “there is a massive ‘value grab’ as some of these corporations weaken intellectual property rights for America’s creators by exploiting legal loopholes never intended for them – perversely abusing
US law to underpay music creators, thus harming one of America’s economic and job engines.”

“Surely the world’s most sophisticated technology corporations can do better – by helping to prevent
illegal access and paying fair market value for music with prices set by or based on the free market,” they said.

The 13 December letter is available here [pdf].