Happy Holidays from the AIMP

 Happy holidays to all our members and guests and best wishes for a prosperous New Year.  The LA Chapter will return with our annual "A View From The Top" luncheon panel on February 16th.

• Legislation - Two bills; The house version, SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the senate version, PROTECT IP Act are likely to be voted on by congress in 2012. The bills, which allow the U.S. Department of Justice, as well as copyright holders to seek court orders against websites operated for the purpose of intellectual property theft do have opposition. This opposition comes largely from companies such as Google who profit handsomely from monetizing online searches and ads on sites hosting popular content, whether legal or not, and various organizations supported by/affiliated with such companies including EFF, Public Knowledge and other “information wants to be free” advocates. 
• You Tube Licensing Agreement  - The NMPA and HFA bring Independent Music Publishers a groundbreaking licensing opportunity with YouTube. Think of this as a dynamic synchronization license based on advertising generated by user uploaded videos using your music. Participation is available to all independent publishers in the U.S. who can opt in to the agreement between November 17, 2011 and January 16, 2012. To learn more about opting in go to www.youtubelicenseoffer.com. To view the full press release click here.
• Pan European Licensing Update - Digital music services launching in the EU continue to prefer single societies rather than acquiring digital composition rights through the local society network. A variety of organizations are providing services to music publishers (see the AIMP article on Pan European Licensing here). STIM is making a direct appeal to Indie Publishers through its non-exclusive WOI licensing platform initiative. To learn more: www.STIM.se.
• Follow Us - And don't forget to follow the AIMP on Twitter, like us on Facebook and join us on Linked In.