Department of Justice Fires Another Shot at Songwriters as Licensing Battle Escalates

The Department of Justice on Thursday fired another salvo in the battle over song licensing, filing a brief in support of 100% licensing, which BMI and other performing rights organizations (PROs) adamantly oppose.

The DOJ previously announced it would appeal the Sept. 16 order by federal Judge Louis Stanton, who rejected what many felt was a radical interpretation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) calling for 100% licensing. Judge Stanton elected to allow BMI to continue its longstanding practice of fractional licensing.

“The DOJ’s 100% licensing position, an entirely new interpretation never raised by the Department before, unfairly advantages music users at the expense of the American songwriter and upends a longstanding industry practice that has worked effectivelythermalization. The trap depth is ramped down in four linear ramps by reducing the power in the laser beams. In each ramp the trap depth is lowered by about a factor of three (Fig. \[fig:ramp\]). Initially, the atoms spread out in the trap generated by the horizontal beam. During the first ramp the power of the tilted beam is kept constant, forcing the atoms to accumulate in the crossed region during ramping. The duration of each ramp is optimized in the experiment. Within 1.6 s of forced evaporation we achieve Bose-Einstein condensation. To produce a pure BEC the intensity in the laser beams can be reduced further.

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