Gary Parsons on The Perform Act

"In addition to exposing customers to new music, XM also pays tens of millions of dollars to performing artists, songwriters, record labels and music publishers.  While terrestrial radio giants are exempt from paying performance rights, XM Radio is the largest single payor of sound recording performance royalties."

"Congress created balanced copyright laws to protect the rights of users as well as rightsholders.  XM protects the interests of content owners, and will strongly fight to defend consumers as well."

"We pay [royalties] under the structure put in place by Congress in 1998 and supported by the major record labels at that time.  Now, the record industry is back, asking you to rewrite the established rules for performance rights…just as we begin the renegotiation of rates for the next five years.  Based on our current rates alone, satellite radio will pay hundreds of millions of dollars over this period."

 
 "The proposed Perform Act is not about piracy.  And given that it changes the rules for XM but not for broadcast radio, it is not about parity either."

"The labels also seek to eliminate long-held consumer rights.  For decades, a consumer's right to record material for their personal use off the radio has been upheld by the courts, honored by Congress, and reinforced by the Audio Home Recording Act." 

"We have introduced a new generation of innovative devices to let subscribers hear live XM on the go…Just because it's convenient, doesn't mean it's illegal.  XM and its manufacturing partners designed these devices to fully comply with copyright law.  And despite the record companies' claims, recording from the radio is not a download service."