Compulsory copyright license is the exception to copyright law. It is the government’s attempt to correct a market failure or a monopoly. A compulsory license allows a person to exercise one or more of the copyright’s exclusive rights without having to obtain the copyright holder’s permission. All the individual has to do is pay a licensing fee. This is why it is called a “compulsory license.”

You may be wondering why someone may want a compulsory license or why someone would need to use a copyrighted work. Well, there are many education or non-commercial purposes for using another’s copyrighted material.

United States law provides for several different compulsory licenses which include:

• nondramatic musical compositions

• public broadcasting

• retransmission by cable systems

• subscription digital audio transmission

• nonsubscription digital audio transmission (i.e. Internet radio)

The most common use of compulsory license is for nondramatic musical compositions. U.S. Federal Law (the Copyright Act) allows a person to create and distribute a new sound recording of a musical work. In this case, the new recording does not need to be identical to the previous work. The compulsory license allows you to rearrange the work to conform to the recording artist’s interpretation. However, the individual seeking the compulsory license cannot change the basic melody or fundamental character of the work.

You have no choice but to allow another to have a compulsory license in your work. However, an experienced music attorney can help you protect your rights and help you obtain just compensation for that individual’s use of your copyrighted work.