Peter Gabriel to Rush Limbaugh: Stop using my music...

[GReedDiamond]

61. I'm a published songwriter, w/a publishing company...

...which is affiliated with Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI).

I have never heard of "moral rights" in the music publishing business.

There are different types of licensing fees, such as live performance, mechanical reproduction, master use licensing for movies and tv, foreign subpublishing agreements, (I'm signing such an agreement within the next week or two), and so on, but "moral rights" is new to me.

Also, while it is possible to "sign away your moral rights," it does not necessarily mean that you give up any rights "if you license the song to someone" - usually it means that you retain full ownership of the material, but are willing to license the work to others in exchange for an agreed upon percentage of royalty payments from monies generated by the licensee.

"Bumper music" was mentioned by someone, as used on talk radio shows such as Pig Limbaugh's, and is often regarded as being an example of "fair use," but, as you note, it is not fair use in such instances.

In the case of Chrissie Hynde, as someone else mentioned, she licensed the use of The Pretenders' song to Limbaugh, but that does not mean she has given up her or the band's copyrights and publishing.

The business aspect of music is complicated enough without erroneous "information" being spread, so I'd like to correct the record here, no offense intended.