From Wired, SoundExchange, Caught Lobbying, Says Lobbying Bar Does Not Apply.
The Copyright Act that created the nonprofit SoundExchange explicitly restricts how it can spend its money: basically collecting and distributing royalties. It does not have legal permission to fund lobbying organizations.
But that’s exactly what it’s doing with the musicFIRST Coalition, a lobbying group intent on making terrestrial radio stations play performance royalties, which
Wired has proof that SoundExchange “registered the MusicFirstCoalition.org domain on May 9, 2007; that it is a member of the organization; and that supports musicFIRST financially.” Busted.
Via techdirt.