The Pittsburgh Press (May 26, 1941)
COURT UPHOLDS CURB ON A.S.C.A.P.
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Decision prohibits price-fixing activities
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Washington, May 26 (UP) –
The Supreme Court today sustained validity of Nebraska and Florida laws curbing activities of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).
The decision ultimately may affect the entertainment industry from the “jukebox” tavern to the million-dollar movie studio.
The court’s action in prohibiting price-fixing activities by ASCAP was unanimous.
The Florida and Nebraska laws restricting ASCAP are similar and the issues presented the court were almost identical. In parallel decisions, the court said it found nothing in the copyright laws which:
…purports to grant to copyright owners the privilege of combining in violation of otherwise valid state or federal laws.
The court said:
We have, in fact, determined to the contrary with relation to other copyright privileges.
In another major decision, the court, by a 6–1 vote, upheld rates which Vice President Henry A. Wallace prescribed for livestock commission merchants in Kansas City, Mo., when he was Secretary of Agriculture. The effect of that action, which concludes 11 years of litigation, is to require distribution of a $586,000 fund impounded in the District Court awaiting final settlement.
In another decision, the court gave Congress power to regulate primary elections for the nomination of candidates for federal office.
The ruling was part of an opinion reversing the action of a U.S. District Judge in Louisiana and dismissed indictments against five New Orleans election officials accused of fraudulent vote counting.
Justice Hugo L. Black wrote the opinion in the Florida ASCAP case – an opinion which approved a pattern for legislation, which, if adopted generally by the states, would require drastic reorganization of the functions of the society which controls the rights to a major share of America’s popular music.
Justice Black said:
We are pointed to nothing either in the language of the copyright laws or in the history of their enactment to indicate any Congressional purpose to deprive the states, either in whole or in part, of their long recognized power to regulate combinations in restraint of trade.
It is enough for us to say in this case that the phase of Florida’s law prohibiting activities of those unlawful combinations described in §1 of the 1937 act does not contravene the copyright laws of the federal Constitution…
The section of the Florida law referred to forbade copyright owners in “substantial” numbers to combine for the purpose of fixing fees for public performance of their work.
ASCAP is the giant copyright pool to which most prominent American composers, songwriters and music publishers have assigned their copyright privileges. ASCAP recently signed a consent decree ending a federal antitrust action against it and agree to revise many of its procedures.