U. S. v. A. S. C. A. & P.

The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers has copyright control over the public performance of practically every U. S. song from "I Love You Truly" to "Fun to Be Fooled." Because of that control, the most potent organization for the protection of the legal rights of Tin Pan Alley last week found itself the defendant in the most serious suit in its court-studded career. The plaintiff : the U. S. Government. The charge: violation of the Sherman Anti-Trust Law.

In 1914 a fat, jovial Irishman named Victor Herbert (Mlle Modiste) and an ex-U. S. Marine Corps bandmaster named John Philip Sousa ("The Stars and Stripes Forever") founded A. S. C. A. & P. to collect royalties for songwriters and com posers whose works were then being bandied from one cafe to another with never a penny's profit to the men who made them. At first it was uphill sledding bu. Victor Herbert had a smart attorney named Nathan Burkan and a willing helper named Eugene Howard Buck, who collaborated on 20 Ziegfeld Follies. Under George Maxwell, its first president, and now under Gene Buck, A. S. C. A. & P. has prospered mightily. It has brought and won more than 1,000 suits against cinema houses, theatres, hotels and restaurants which used songs without paying the copyright fees. Today it represents 850 composers, 760 writers, go publishers--the best musicmakers in the land. It issues annual licenses to places where music by A. S. C. A. & P. members is likely to be played and collects royalties: $60-$360 from night clubs; $80-$360 from hotels; 10-c- a seat per year from cinema theatres. Places that play A. S. C. A. & P. music without licenses are reported by a nation-wide organization of spies, are promptly sued.

A. S. C. A. & P. is, in effect, a pool of copyrights. Since no individual composer could be expected to travel all over the nation listening for infringements of his copyrights, A. S. C. A. & P. does it for him, collects all monies due into its own coffers. Four times a year this money is distributed on a percentage basis to the society's members. Members are rated according to the length of their membership, the popularity of their songs, their prestige. Irving Berlin ("Easter Parade"), Carrie Jacobs-Bond ("A Perfect Day"), George Gershwin ("Rhapsody in Blue"), Jerome Kern ("OP Man River"), the estate of Victor Herbert, are AA--the highest paid rating. They represent a class whose songs are most actively played today, receive in copyright royalties between $5,000 and $10,000 a year. There is an honorary Permanent Class A for good writers who are no longer producing songs. Such a songwriter is Gene Buck ("Tulip Time," "Hello Frisco") who gets about $2,500 for his rating but is reported to make $25,000 as the society's president. Ratings go as low as 4. Last year A. S. C. A. & P. collected about $2,000,000 which it prorated among its members. Most of that $2,000,000 came from radio.

When Pittsburgh's KDKA sent out the first U. S. broadcast in 1920, A. S. C. A. & P. was ready for Radio. After a few skirmishes, radio stations fell in line with other dispensers of music, began paying for A. S. C. A. & P. licenses.

By 1932 Radio had ruined the sale of sheet music, once the major source of popular music profit. But A. S. C. A. & P. drove through a deal which promised to make up the loss. The National Association of Broadcasters, to which the most important U. S. networks and stations belong, agreed to pay a flat $960,000 for each of three years plus 3% of Radio's net receipts for 1933, 4% for 1934 and 5% for 1935. Estimated amount which A. S. C. A. & P. will collect in 1935 is $4,500,000.

The fact that the Federal suit brought last week against A. S. C. A. & P. coincided almost to the day with the date for the jump from the 3% rate to the 4%, left little doubt that it was Radio which had prodded the Federal Government into court in its behalf. Basis of the suit was that A. S. C. A. & P., with its iron-clad grip on copyrights, dominates the music industry which is the staple of Radio which, in turn, is engaged in the interstate commerce of "transmitting [electric] energy, ideas, entertainments."

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