Mechanical and Digital Phonorecord Delivery Rate Adjustment Proceeding

Compass Lexecon affiliate William Landes testified on behalf of the National Music Publishers’ Association, the Songwriters Guild of America, and the Nashville Songwriters Association International (jointly, “Copyright Owners”) before the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) in a hearing to set royalty rates for mechanical licenses, which are required to make copies of records using copyrighted songs, including for example, CDs and other physical records, digital downloads, and ringtones. With regard to ringtones, the CRB cited Landes’ testimony and the “Landes mastertone benchmark” in deciding on reasonable rates for this use of copyrighted songs. Landes was supported by a team in our Chicago office including Lisa Landes, Erica Benton, and Wendy Petropoulos. We were retained by Jay Cohen at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP who represented the Copyright Owners. Meg Guerin-Calvert also submitted testimony in this CRB proceeding on behalf of members of the Digital Media Association (DiMA), including Apple iTunes, RealNetworks, Inc., MediaNet Digital, and Yahoo! Inc. Her testimony examined the dynamics of the digital music marketplace and focused on the appropriate rate structure for the range of digital music use in permanent and limited downloads and interactive streaming, such as subscription services. The percentage of revenue method she advanced was the rate structure adopted in the settlement by the parties with regard to limited downloads and interactive streaming. She was supported in the Washington, DC office by Susan Manning and Susan Burkhauser in a retention by Fernando Laguarda and Thomas Connolly of Harris, Wiltshire, & Grannis LLP and Lee Knife of DiMA.