First Page
268
Abstract
The United States (US) is the “leader in [the] creation, distribution, and worldwide licensing of recorded music.” Despite this, the US fails to afford moral rights protections to musical creators. Unlike economic rights, moral rights are not primarily concerned with the economic exploitation of art and instead protect the personal and reputational value of a work. Legislative justifications for copyright protection in the US include providing adequate rewards and appropriate incentives for artistic creation. To accomplish this, copyright law must protect authors’ personal expression, or moral rights, as much as it protects authors’ financial compensation, or economic rights. By focusing solely on musical creators’ economic rights, US copyright law fails to champion artists’ personal autonomy. Furthermore, record companies offer economic rewards to entice authors to contractually transfer full exclusive rights to their work. Record companies possess all the money, resources, and negotiation leverage to accelerate an artist’s career, which creates a significant power imbalance between labels and budding artists. Some European countries, such as the Netherlands, have introduced a contract adjustment mechanism called the “best-seller” clause whereby authors have a “right to claim additional fair compensation in court… if… the agreed compensation is disproportionate to the proceeds from the exploitation of the work.” Without contract adjustment mechanisms, like the “best-seller” clause, or moral rights protections, musical creators in the US have little recourse to protect their financial and reputational autonomy, putting them at a disadvantage vis-à-vis contracting partners, such as record labels. As the leading exporter of music worldwide, it is time for the US and its legislators to protect authors against the considerable leverage of commercial entities and afford US authors an equitable system for remuneration.
Recommended Citation
Natalia Perez-Flores,
The Starving Artist: What The US Can Learn from Dutch Artist-Focused Legislation About Equitable Remuneration for Musical Creators,
50 Brook. J. Int'l L.
268
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol50/iss2/6
