National Music Publishers Association

National Music Publishers' Association
Formation 1917
Type Trade association
Location
President and CEO
 David Israelite[1]
Board of Directors
 Martin Bandier
Caroline Bienstock
Helene Blue
Bob Doyle
John L. Eastman
Roger Faxon
Neil Gillis
Laurent Hubert
Dean Kay
Leeds Levy
Evan Medow
Ralph Peer, II
Matt Pincus
Irwin Z. Robinson
Michael J. Sammis
Cameron Strang
Richard Stumpf
Website nmpa.org

The National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) is a trade association for the American music publishing industry. The NMPA aims to "protect its members' property rights on the legislative, litigation, and regulatory fronts."[2] NMPA has over 2500 members.[2]

The NMPA has pursued litigation against numerous organizations, including Amway,[3] YouTube, Kazaa, LimeWire and Napster.

History

The NMPA was founded in 1917. In 1927, the NMPA founded the Harry Fox Agency, a mechanical rights collecting society.[4] The NMPA lobbies federal legislators and regulators on behalf of music publishers and crafted guidelines for the Copyright Act of 1976.[5]

In September 2001, the NMPA reached a settlement with Napster, turning the company into a fee-based service with publishers licensing music to the users.[6] The NMPA won a judgment against peer-to-peer filing service StreamCast Networks in September 2006.[7] In 2007, NMPA joined a lawsuit against YouTube for hosting user-generated videos containing music under copyright. The suit was dropped four years later.[8][9]

Along with the Music Publishers' Association (MPA), the NMPA has been responsible for taking many free guitar tablature web sites offline. NMPA President David Israelite asserted that "[u]nauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing".[10] The NMPA also pushed for rate hikes for legal downloads of music in 2008.[11]

In 2010, the NMPA represented EMI, Sony/ATV, Universal and Warner/Chappell, Bug, MPL Communications, Peermusic and the Richmond Organization in a lawsuit against LimeWire. The suit sought $150,000 for each song that was distributed.[12]

NMPA is a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, a business alliance which amongst others publishes the Special 301 Report, a controversial list of countries that the coalition of copyright holders feel do not do enough to combat copyright infringements.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Plambeck, Joseph (June 16, 2010). "Internet File-Sharing Service Is Sued by Music Publishers". The New York Times. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "NMPA Mission Statement". National Music Publishers Association. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  3. ↑ Amway: The Untold Story: NMPA (Press release), 25 November 2006.
  4. ↑ "About HFA". Harry Fox Agency. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  5. ↑ Frankel, James (2009). The Teacher's Guide to Music, Media, and Copyright Law. New York: Hal Leonard. p. 82. ISBN 978-1-4234-4344-5.
  6. ↑ "Early History of Napster", by Moya K. Mason, 2010
  7. ↑ Jones, K. C. (August 7, 2007). "Music Publishers Sue YouTube". InformationWeek. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  8. ↑ "Music Publishers to Join YouTube Suit". The New York Times. Associated Press. August 7, 2007. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  9. ↑ Lang, Brent (August 17, 2011). "Music Publishers Drop Copyright Suit Against YouTube". TheWrap. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  10. ↑ Youngs, Ian (December 12, 2005). "Song sites face legal crackdown". BBC News. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  11. ↑ Albanesius, Chloe (October 2, 2008). "Music-Download Royalty Rates Left Unchanged". PC Magazine. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  12. ↑ Mick, Jason (June 18, 2010). "New Suit Against Limewire Could Total 15 Times Music Industry's Yearly Income". Daily Tech. Retrieved December 12, 2011.
  13. ↑ Masnick, Mike (February 24, 2010). "IIPA's Section 301 Filing Shows It's Really Not At All Interested In Reducing Copyright Infringement". Tech Dirt. Retrieved December 12, 2011.

External links