33 Plaintiffs

BMI (for Broadcast Music, Inc.) was born 14 years ago when radio broadcasters decided that the venerable ASCAP (for American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers demanded too much in performance royalties. As a rival music-licensing agency. BMI had a scrawny infancy: almost all competent U.S. songwriters were members of ASCAP. For a while, until peace was patched up, the networks had to draw heavily on tunes in the public domain--and Stephen Foster's Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair became a new hit at 87.

But in 14 years BMI has grown husky, with a big pool of music and composers to draw on. This week 33 ASCAP songwriters filed a civil suit against BMI, the networks and their related record companies, charging conspiracy and discrimination to keep non-BMI music from being heard as often as it should be. Among the 33: Ira (I Got Rhythm] Gershwin. Arthur (Dancing in the Dark] Schwartz, Dorothy (I Can't Give Yon Anything but Love) Fields. Gian-Carlo (The Consul) Menotti. They reckon that they and other non-BMI composers have collectively lost $50 million in royalties in the past decade. Their demand: triple damages ($150 million) and a court order directing broadcasters to get out of BMI.

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