"What's so perverse," Mr. George said, is that the houses conceal "the very information necessary to know whether a royalty is due".
A Royalty is due only for sales for which we have received final payment from or on behalf of an end user.
Music publishing companies administer the copyrights of songwriters and composers and collect the royalties that are due to them.
Representative Edward Markey of Massachusetts hopes to put things right with a bill that would clarify the law and prevent companies from signing new leases in the gulf until they renegotiate the old ones and pay royalties that are due.
Laura Penn, the society's executive director, said in the statement that Ms. Taymor "has given nine years of her life to this project" and its producers had "absolutely no right, legally and ethically, to withhold royalties that are due to her".
Though it has strong support from musicians and the music industry who have spent years fighting YouTube, arguing it exploits legal protections around music videos viewed on its service and pays lower royalties than they are due.
In protest of the $1 Billion royalty rates that are due to hit web radio broadcasters on July 15 today was officially deemed a 'day of silence' in the US.
One place where the producers have not spent any money, according to Ms. Taymor, is in paying her the royalties she is due.
In lawsuits in state after state, private landowners have won cases accusing the companies like Chesapeake of stiffing them on royalties they were due.
People often don't realize, for example, that if a California hotel with paintings on the walls changes ownership, or if a donated sculpture sells for more than its original price at a fundraising auction, a royalty may be due.
