Free Republic

A federal court in the Southern District of New York today terminated the Paramount Consent Decrees, which for over seventy years have regulated how certain movie studios distribute films to movie theatres. The review and termination of these Decrees were part of the Department of Justice’s review of legacy antitrust judgments that dated back to the 1890’s and has resulted in the termination of nearly 800 perpetual decrees.   “We appreciate the Court’s thoughtful opinion and ruling today granting our motion to terminate these outdated Paramount Decrees,” said Makan Delrahim, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “As...

The Justice Department is planning a virtual public workshop on one of the most contentious issues in the music business – the future of the nearly 80-year-old consent decrees that have governed how works are licensed. The event on July 28 and 29 is the latest development as the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division reviews the decrees, a move that would have huge implications on songwriters, artists and publishers. According to the DOJ, the workshop will include discussions of competition issues related to public performance licenses, competition between performing rights organizations, and the licensing of music to end users

“The Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice has provided oversight and recommendations for improvement of police services in a number of cities with consent decrees. This is one of the most effective ways to reduce discrimination in law enforcement and it needs to be beefed up and increased to cover as many of the 18,000-plus local law enforcement jurisdictions.” That was United Nations Rapporteur Maina Kai on July 27, a representative of the U.N. Human Rights Council, who on the tail-end of touring the U.S., endorsed a little-known and yet highly controversial practice by the Justice Department to...

I think it’s safe to say the entertainment industry – including the music industry - isn’t exactly friendly to conservatives and Republicans.Indeed, since 2008, the music industry has directed at least 80 percent of its annual campaign donations to Democrats, while the entertainment crowd as a whole donated over $8 million to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in 2016, compared to less than $300,000 to Donald Trump.And yet…Two music industry giants – the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) are now practically camped out on President Trump’s Department of Justice doorstep, hat in hand,...

Urges Archbishop of San Francisco and Catholic Charities to defy Church directives on adoptions by homosexuals SAN FRANCISCO, December 13, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In March of this year the City of San Francisco issued one of the most startling attacks on the Catholic Church coming from a governmental body in the United States in half a century. The governing body of the city of San Francisco - the Board of Supervisors - voted unanimously to approve a resolution blasting the Catholic Church for its opposition to homosexual adoption. That resolution has been deemed "constitutional" by Federal Judge Marily Hall Patel,...