Many broadcasters are telling FHH they’ve been contacted by the Radio Music License Committee about a lawsuit the RMLC has filed against a new performing rights organization. Called Global Music Rights, it was founded in 2013 with the goal of extracting higher music license fees than those offered through other PROs like ASCAP and BMI.

The RMLC claims that GMR’s licensing practices are anticompetitive and violate the antitrust laws.

Have you been contacted? Do you have questions? In order to inform radio owners as quickly as possible about this issue, FHH is hosting a webinar to discuss GMR and the RMLC’s lawsuit against it on Wednesday, December 14 at 3 p.m. Eastern.

The webinar is free, and we encourage your station employees to attend. You can register by clicking on this link. (You’ll need to provide your name and email address, and you’ll also be asked to provide your city and state and any station(s) you may be associated with.)

The webinar will answer questions such as:

o   What is GMR?

o   Why did the RMLC sue GMR?

o   What might happen with that lawsuit?

o   What should I do now and be prepared to do in the future?

Participants will have the opportunity to ask questions. The webinar will be presented by Fletcher, Heald & Hildreth attorneys Kevin Goldberg and Karyn Ablin, who both focus on copyright and music licensing matters and, between them, have over 40 years of experience in this and other areas. Kevin Goldberg focuses on intellectual property issues, particularly copyright and trademark matters encountered by content creators and users. Kevin guides clients through the ins and outs of negotiating with major performing rights organizations. Karyn Ablin has devoted much of her over 20 years of experience to litigating music licensing and other copyright issues before the Copyright Royalty Judges, the ASCAP Rate Court, and federal courts. Most recently, Karyn represented both the National Association of Broadcasters and the National Religious Broadcasters Noncommercial Music License Committee in the webcasting proceeding before the Copyright Royalty Judges to set sound recording performance rates for 2016-2020. Karyn also counsels broadcasters and other clients on various music licensing and other copyright matters.

FHH is presenting the event in cooperation with our friends at a number of state broadcaster associations, including those in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Maryland/DC/Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York State, Oregon, Minnesota, Missouri, South Carolina, Puerto Rico, Tennessee, Texas and Washington State.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.