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May 1, 1981
rolume 7, Number 8
J B I ist battle
The AMOA's jukebox location list
battle was lost in February when the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear
the case. In denying the AMOA
appeal, the Supreme Court let stand
a lower federal court ruling which
upheld the Copyright Royalty
Tribunal's authority to require
operators to file lists of their jukebox
locati ons in order to be in
compliance with the law.
The battle, which saw the creation
of a special AMOA legal defense
fund, cost over $100,000. AMOA is
continuing with the legal action fund ,
however, to challenge still another
part of the unpopular law, that is, the
increased per-box royalty rate set by
the CRT.
Nova Apparate
cha nges hands
The Gauselmann-Automaten Group
(West Germany) has acquired as of
March 1, 1981 the internationally
well -known import/ export company
Nova Apparate GmbH Co. KG .
Hamburg.
Nova Apparate , one of the leading
firms in the European coin machine
trade, was solely owned up to this
date by its founder , A.W . Adickes,
who, due to his advanced age,
decided to sell his company. The
proceeds will be tt a nsf erred to the
Karla and · Alfr e d W . Adickes
Foundation, the means of which are
used for charitable purposes.
Nova is one of the pioneers in the
field of amusement machines .
Already by in the early fifties , it
imported the first amusement
machines for the growing leisure
industry in Germany and later also
for many European companies.
Nova is sole importer for Rock-Oia
phonographs and vending machines
continued on page 10
But it has been the jukebox
location list battle which many
operators placed as the main fight.
They argue that the location lists are
confidential business information
and that to give up these lists to a
federal agency would jeopardize
their businesses by leaving them
open to future broadsides from so-
called "blue sky" operstors who sell
direct to locations.
The AMOA challenge centered on
its contention over what constitutes
"access" to the jukebox. The CRT-
which, according to the law, must
distribute the royalties collected by
the performing rights societies-
stipulated that the performing rights
societies must have access to
licensed jukebox locations so they
can sample selections.
To the lost fight, the AMOA had
no official reaction through its
executive offices in Chicago. It was
undecided whether or not the
AMOA legal counsel would pursue a
challenge of the CRT's constitution-
ality in passing its decisions.
The association has filed as a court
intervenor in a challenge of the CRT
decision in Dece mber to raise
mechanical royalty rates on record
sales to 4 cents per song. And in the
appeal of the scale of per-jukebox
rates , the AMOA counsel and
attorneys for the CRT were due in
federal court in Chicago on March
23, said Nick Allen , general counsel
for the AMOA.
On the court confirmation of the
requirement for operators to turn
over location lists, AMOA Executive
Vice President Leo Droste said the
matter in February was "under
advisement for possible course of
action but there is nothing official at
this time ."
Allen said the Supreme Court's
refusal to hear the location lists
requirement appeal did not address
•
IS
lost
the challenge of constitutionality of
this requirement.
Meanwhile, operators were filing
applications for jukebox royalty
licenses at a rate "right in line with
last year," according to the U.S.
Copyright Office. Walter Sampson ,
chief of licensing, said at the end of
February certifications had been
issued for a total of 89,595 machines,
which at the current $8 per-box rate
had collected $716,762 in royalties.
During 1980, 136,000 jukebox
licenses were issued , Sampson
pointed out.
In the mechanical fees matter,
under which the operator pays
another royalty fee of 4¢ per song
continued on page 9
Rock-Oia copy
hit with action
FRAN KFURT/ MAIN - A West
German court has found in favor of
Rock -Ola Manufacturing Co. of
Chicago with an injunction against
an alleged copy of the Rock-Ola-
licensed Star Castle video game.
Rock -Oia's attorneys had been
able to convince the Frankfurt court
on January 23 that Video Games
Gmbh's Space Castle had infringed
against Star Castle. Rock-Oia has
licensed the game from Cinema-
Ironies, Inc ., of El Cajon, California,
which granted exclusive manufac-
turing and distributing rights in
Europe.
The matter had arisen in London
at the ATE show, where the German
manufacturer was warned of
potential action to be taken if the
Space Castle game were shown in
the IMA trade affair in Frankfurt.
The game was removed from the
British show without legal action.
Dr. David R. Rockola explained,
continued on page 9