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II.)
8
In the movie, "The Graduate," there is one interesting exchange between two
characters which I think accurately describes the federal government's new
jukebox copyright law.
Benjamin, who is "the graduate," tells his father that he has finally decided to
marry his childhood sweetheart and that he is leaving that morning to set the
date. But his father, in quizzing Benjamin about his plans, soon learns that his
son's bride-to-be doesn't want to marry him, doesn't love him, and, in fact,
detests everything about him.
To this Benjamin's father asks, "Don't you think this whole thing sounds sort of
half -baked?"
And Benjamin replies, "Oh, no, Dad, it's fully-baked."
The federal government's "fully-baked" jukebox copyright law, on closer
inspection is beginning to look as laughable as Benjamin's scheme to wed.
From the outset one should note that, in this matter of the copyright law, the
federal government is acting as a private collection agency for the performing
rights societies-ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI. This is in marked contrast to the
federal government's usual way of doing things. Normally the money Uncle Sam
collects is not specifically earmarked for a particular project but instead is given
to the national treasury and from there disbursed to the federal claimants. So a
collection that passes directly from one group of people to another group of people
with the federal government acting as the intermediary certainly puts the feds in
a strange position. And since it is a marked departure from Uncle Sam's usual
way of doing things, it is also very probable that this hybird form of tax collection
may be fraught with difficulties.
Right now, the greatest of those problems is, quite obviously, the lack of
response from jukebox operators.
As of the second week in March, only about 1,400 operators had registered
their jukeboxes under the new law. This is in sharp contrast to the estimated
8,000 operators in the country.
Collections, which were estimated to be around S4 million, are now at a measly
5600,000, and that's about what it's going to cost the feds to run their end of the
program. What all this means is that as things stand right now the performing
rights societies will probably be getting a "Sorry, Charlie" message when it comes
time to share in the receipts. There'll be nothing left after Uncle Sam gets his cut.
In other words, the jukebox copyright law is becoming still another
governmental boondoggle.
The starry-eyed people at ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI who have gone wishing
on a star with visions of money, money, money dancing in their heads didn't
realize that they had joined forces with an organization not renowned for its
ef.ficiency but rather for its inefficiency. What ASCAP and Pals are just beginning
to realize is that when you win a war and the federal government is on your side,
you don't win, the federal government wins. You're just taken along for the ride .
And ASCAP and Pals have been taken along for a ride.
The problem seems to stem from the fact that the federal government hasn't
allowed enoujth time to track down all of the nation's operators. As I wrote in an
article in the February issue of PLAY METER (and, yes, I know it's
journalistically uncouth to quote yoursell, but what the heck), .... .it seems highly
unlikely that [the federal government 1 has been able to locate all the jukebox
operators inside of the 31 days of January."
You see, the federal government is only now beginning to realize how
shortsighted it was when it made the timetable for the law's compliance. Our good
friends in Washington must have figured they could just swoop right down and
pick up the authoritative list of all the nation's jukebox operators in one month's
time. Their reasoning must have been something along these lines: "If we can put
a man on the moon, we should certainly be able to-"
Little did anyone (that is, anyone outside of the coin machine industr y) realize
how big a task the feds were taking upon themselves. For instance, there are
countless location-owned jukeboxes out there that no one is ever going to be able
to find simply because the owners of these jukeboxes have no connection
whatsoever with the coin machine industry.
Of course, there are many bona fide operators out there who still haven't
registered their boxes. They know about the law, fully intend to obey it, but are
expecting the federal government to take the first step. At least, this is what I
have been picking up from operators I've talked with across the country. Most
operators, it seems, have assumed that the federal government has all their
names, and that the reasoD they haven't gotten their JB Forms yet is that the
mail (good 01' Uncle Sam again) is late as usual.
But this is simply not the case with the federal copyright law. The federal
government is not going to contact you. You have to turn yoursell in. And
apparently that point hasn't been made sufficiently clear.