Ho hum, looks like
nodeshell rescue time...
The Harry Fox Agency issues
mechanical licences to
record companies on behalf of
publishing companies and/or
songwriters in the
USA.
To explain more fully, any time a
recording of a
song is commercially issued, a payment has to be made to the writer of the song and/or the owner of the copyright. This is arranged by the issuing of a
mechanical licence at an agreed rate of payment per record sold (in the USA it is compulsory if agreement cannot be reached for the copyright owners to make an agreement at a
statutory rate).
The Harry Fox Agency issues these licences in the US, collects the payments, and distributes the money (minus comission) to the publishers and songwriters. In the
UK it is the
Mechanical Copyright Protection Society (
MCPS for short) that issues these licences.