OPERATING
Senate confirms Copyright Tribunal
The U.S . Senate has confirmed
the appointment of all five members
who had been nominated to serve
on the newly-created Copyright
Royalty Tribunal , but at presstime
there was no indication as to what
decisions that five-member panel
would make.
At stake is the interpretation of
the new jukebox royalty law and
how that law will be implemented
when it goes into effect January 1.
The five appointees are Tom
Brennan, who is the counsel for the
Senate
Copyright
Committee;
Clarence James, a Cleveland at-
torney; Frances Garcia, an ac-
countant from Austin , Texas; Doug-
las Coutler, a Vietnam veteran and
an economics writer; and Mary Lou
Burg of West Bend, Wisconsin ,
who is the former deputy chair-
woman of the Democratic National
Committee.
Garcia and James were appointed
to five-year terms on the committee,
and the other three members -
Brennan, Coutler, and Burg - were
appointed for seven years. The
yearly salaries for each of the five is
$47,500.
It will be their duty to determine
what actually goes into the imple-
mentation of the jukebox legislation
which will, as of January 1, assess
each operator eight dollars for each
jukebox he operates. According to a
recent estimate of the A.M.O.A.,
there are 500,000 jukeboxes being
operated in the United States,
which would produce for the
performing rights societies and their
clients $4 million .
The main problem with the
implementation of the new law is
that the three performing rights
societies - ASCAP,
BMI,
and
SESAC - are insisting that the pho-
nographs be listed by location and
that, in addition, the selections on
each jukebox be filed each week so
that the performing rights com-
mittees would have an indication as
to how to disburse the funds .
The A .M .O.A ., however, con-
tends that because of the highly
mobile nature of the industry, it
would be impossible to list the
phonographs by location. Operators
also fear that if they are forced to list
their phonographs according to
location, they may be required to
re-register the phonograph and pay
an additional eight dollars for the
same machine. A recommendation
by ASCAP to this effect is one of
the matters the copyright tribunal
will have to decide on .
Operators also fear that by listing
the phonographs their business may
be jeopardized because that in-
formation (the locations) would be
available to the public as part of the
Freedom of Information :\ct.
The copyright law states that in
filing for the phonograph license,
the operator of the phonograph
must supply "the manufacturer and
serial number or other explicit
identification of the "jukebox. The
A .M .O.A. is contending that " other
explicit information" should allow
operators to identify their machines
by the manufacturers' serial num-
bers. The performing rights socie-
ties want more information .
Other points of contention which
will have to be decided by the
five-member panel include the mat-
ter of multiple submissions - can an
operator with 200 phonographs
send in a blanket application to
cover his machines or must he file
200 forms?
Also the size, location , and
placement of the license has created
a problem. Operators want the
licenses to fit into a 1-inch by
three-inch slot on the record
selection chart. The performing
rights committees want the licenses
bigger and more prominently dis-
played .
Bally holds Super
Three Datsun automobiles are
among the top prizes being offered
as part of the Super Shooter
national pinball tournament, Bally
Manufacturing's Battle of the Pin-
ball Wizards.
Bally's wholly-owned subsidia-
ries, Aladdin's Castle Family Enter-
tainment Centers, have been spon-
soring a series of six weekly
tournaments at each location as the
first step in the tournament to
determine the national pinball wiz-
ard .
Aladdin's Castle is awarding
prizes at all levels of the contest,
and entry blanks for the competition
have been made available at Alad-
din's Castles, Carousel USA Cen-
ters, and LeMans Speedways. What
is noteworthy is that there is no
player entry fee required.
The play in the tournament began
in October and is extending for six
weeks at the location level, with the
competition set for each Wednes-
day. The weekly winner at each
location is determined by the high
scorer on the designated Bally
tournament pinball machines.
The weekly winners at each
location win a collection of five
MCA record albums, a Super
Shooter Exer-Grip from AMF Voit,
and a softbound copy of the new
book Pinball by Roger C. Sharpe
(PLAY METER 's pinball critic) .
Still at the location level , those six
weekly winners meet in a play-off to
determine the location champion. In
addition to moving on in the
tournament, the location champion
wins a GT6600 in-dash 4O-channel
CB unit with AM / FM stereo from
Pioneer Electronics and a $50
wardrobe award from Faded Glory.
The location champions then
move on to the regional level for the
middle step in the tournament. For
the Super Shooter contest, the
United States has been divided into
twenty geographical regions . One
winner will emerge from each of the
twenty regions to move on to the
tournament finals which will take
place in Chicago.
Winners at each stage of the
tournament, it should be noted , are
determined by the high total score.
In case of a tie, the winner is the one
with the highest single game score.
Those who advance to the
regional finals win a trip to Chicago
and accommodations at the Playboy
Towers Hotel in Chicago (the site of
the finals) for three days and two