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Army and Air Force PX operators signed on board the association: shown here with AMOA President Pink (ce nter).
Copyright battle is ongoing
AMOA officers map action
for industry crusades
By Ray E. T illey
The AMOA put on its war paint to
ready for a new round of legislative
fighting over the jukebox copyright
royalty issue while celebrating its
past year of activity and electing
officers for 1982, in its October 30
general membership meeting during
the Expo in Chicago.
Outgoing President Norm Pink
told the members hip: " If there's any
change I would like to remember
from my a dministration, it is
coop e ration between manufac -
turers, distributors, and operators ....
Our indus try is changing, it is
growing, and we must grow with it;
1982 promises to be a fruitful year for
all of us."
To usher in the association's new
year, the members ratified the
election of Mrs . Leoma Ballard
Belle, West Virginia operator, a~
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AMOA president. An AMOA
me mber since 1954, she was elected
to the board of directors in 1968. She
told her fellow AMOA members: "I
have a solid feeling of accomplish·
me nt. I look forward to serving as
your president. I believe people in
this indus try a re beautiful and unique
people."
In he r inaugural talk, Ballard
s tressed a belief in the free enterprise
system a nd called for "unity to reach
our goals." When the AMOA
recently was not able to receive relief
from jukebox royalty fee require·
ments, she said, "failure just meant
we found a way it didn't work," and
s he called for a new goal to be
reached.
Pink pointed to such a goal in the
jukebox fee fight , with a $25 per-box
fee approaching in 1982. "This
industry can no longer sit bac k and
have our equipment ta xed away," he
declared. He noted the former
MOA's defeat of royalty bills prior to
1967 and that in 1969 the association
agreed to the concept of a per-box
fee only if no upward sliding
adjustment were to be made.
With both those burdens, a pre·
jukebox fee and a sliding scale, now
in effect by Copyright Royalty
Tribunal edict, the AMOA has
petitioned Congress to amend the
Copyright Royalty Act of 1976 and to
repeal Section 116 of that law,
thereby exempting coin-op phono-
g r aphs from infringement of
copyright- which would undercut
the requirement for per-jukebox fees
if the AMOA initiative succeeds.
(See related story o n the AMOA's
amendmen t proposal to Congress.)
Pink called on membership to
wage "a campaign we have never
seen befo re." He pointed out that, in
legislative battle agai n st the
PLAY METER, Jan uary 1, 1982