From Murray's Ca. Sen. Website

Bill to Require Labels to Accurately Account Royalties Will Resume in January
7/2/2003

SACRAMENTO – SB 1034, introduced by Senator Kevin Murray, would declare that the record companies’ obligation to accurately account for royalties earned under a recording contract is a fiduciary duty. The bill passed the full Senate earlier this year and will simply move forward from its current position in the Assembly.

“This is simply more about timing than anything else. California is dealing with a unique budget deficit, summer is the busiest time for artists who are on tour, and the bill would have needed a procedural waiver in order to also be heard in Assembly Judiciary Committee by next week,” said Murray.

This bill is one of the recommendations stemming from extensive hearings held by the Senate Select Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee last year. Several of the big five record companies have announced they will be changing some of their policies as a result of several issues raised at the hearing.

“I believe this bill addresses the core issue that has allowed record companies to avoid penalties for under-reporting royalties. Under the current structure, there is no disincentive for record companies to properly account for and pay royalties; therefore, bad behavior by companies is rewarded. Once we get the budget resolved and artists begin to wind down from summer tours we will continue to pursue this,” concluded Murray.

Article after the truth factor has been applied:

This is simply more about timing than anything else. The elections are coming up and the record industry said they would make a sizeable donation to my campaign if I removed the bill.

Several of the big five record companies have announced they will be changing some of their policies as a result of several issues raised at the hearing. Some of the changes include making legislation that exepmts royalty payments from taxable income and expenses.

Well guess what. I just e-mailed one of the people that has a TV show on Fox News and asked if they would check out this web site, the artical's on the RIAA, and the Bill HR 5469. I did this in the hope of getting more expoure for us and everyone who is aganist the RIAA.

Rest in peace RIAA and all of the other's who are against us.

Well, whadayaknow. I've been hollering about royality accountability for years, ever since I quit ASCAP.

The big 5 must be morons if they think stopping downloads will up thier sales. I'm seriously laughing at them because half of the crap I download I never listen to, much less would ever buy. RIAA GET A CLUE! RIAA tactics = scare, sue, bribe, repeat! lmao

What is ASCAP?

weg...ASCAP is the "organization" (read,gang) that supposedly collects the royalty fees for the artists so that copyright holders can be paid for radio play, etc. according to a formula that ASCAP sets. It was a good concept at the beginning, but like the rest of the major corporate music industry, it has been corrupted by organized crime, corporate greed, etc. They have no outside auditing to check that the artist are indeed getting their proper fees. After all, how many times can you really know in, say, a month that a song is being performed?

We need to focus on how we can start our own licensing company,unions, manufacturers, distributors, movie companies, etc... Separate our business dealings with anyone tainted by the riaa. What about rewarding our best songwriters, singers and producers publically like the grammy's. We can call ours "Freedom Awards." Did you know that riaa got a copyright for the terms: "certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi-Platinum™, and Diamond® sales awards, and recently launched Los Premios De Oro y Platino™? What will we call our sales awards for our artist who sells a million albums? Certified Titanium sales? Come on people we have to get our acts together. riaa artist signed to bogus contracts are so fed up it isn't funny! But, they can't do anything about it because they need to keep up the payments on their bentleys, diamonds, mansions and condoms, gold teeth and boob jobs. Now is the perfect time for us to build this society of moral minded, independent, grassroot, true talented, fair individuals. I know it will cost money to do this, just stop buying cd's and put that money in a fund for your society! the "Independent Freedom Movement of America." IFMA...Hmmm..sounds pretty good. Say it fast once.... See! Now we just need a little brain storming and money. We won't be singing, "We shall overcome" either. We'll be signing, "We have overcome" that ugly monster that had us tied down for years underground, forcing us to listen to redundant music over and over and over again! Let's do it!