Law Commons^™

Vol. 9 No. 2, Spring 2018; Law Is A Battlefield: Why Musicians And Politicians Both Lose With Blanket Licensing, Laura E. Schrauth

Northern Illinois Law Review Supplement

When musicians allege that politicians they dislike have used their music without authorization, those allegations make the news, but rarely, if ever, do those news sources mention when the politicians have purchased licenses for that music. Unsurprisingly, copyright law is never a topic of media mention. Licensing is a straightforward, nondiscriminatory procedure that allows anyone who pays the necessary fee the right to exercise the license. When it comes to political uses, however, copyright law loses in a landslide to public opinion, which dictates how vocal opponents think licenses should work without acknowledging how licenses do work. Academia can count …