OTHER NEWS - Aug. 19, 1991

Judge Upholds Effort for Music License Fees: A federal judge denied an antitrust claim by a coalition of cable television operators against Broadcast Music Inc., which holds the rights to more than 2 million musical compositions. U.S. District Judge Joyce Hens Green upheld BMI’s effort to boost its revenue by requiring cable companies to pay a “blanket” license fee for music used in syndicated cable television programming. Green also upheld a counterclaim by BMI that two of the plaintiffs--Black Entertainment Television and the Disney Channel--had infringed on copyrights by using BMI-licensed music without paying a fee. She ordered the Disney Channel to pay $1.98 million and Black Entertainment Television to pay $225,000 to BMI.