With the Performance Rights Act creeping like a weed around Capitol Hill, the NAB is going grassroots, having created a new website that allows broadcasters to take action to defeat the legislative proposal that would require them to, for the first time, pay to perform sound recordings in radio broadcasts.
The "No Performance Tax" website contains:
- Basic background information on the issue.
- Multimedia and Resources, including video from the recent House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Performance Rights Act, galleries of radio and print advertisements and congressional resources.
- A "Newsroom" containing articles, editorials, op-eds and letters to the editor that have appeared in major media on this issue.
Most importantly, broadcasters can take the matter into their own hands by registering through the site to get sample scripts for radio advertisements, advocacy letters directed at Members of Congress and other ideas.
The Performance Rights Act currently has 39 co-sponsors in the House (HR 848) and 6 in the Senate (S 379). A resolution opposing the application of a performance right to over-the-air broadcasting, the Local Radio Freedom Act, has the support of 168 Representatives and 3 Senators.
