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FC: MP3.com pledges to make music downloads a "campaign issue"
From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 11:50:21 -0400
********** See also: http://www.cluebot.com/article.pl?sid=00/09/27/0013244 Will the U.S. Congress Rescue MP3.com? posted by lizard on Tuesday September 26, @07:06PM from the satan-is-wearing-ice-skates dept. Wired News has posted an article about this bill introduced by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va) that would, apparently, permit the creation of MP3.com style centralized music databases. That would give the embattled company a welcome boost in its ongoing court case. But the implications for the rest of us are considerably more mixed. [...snip...] **********
From: "Samberg-Champion, Sasha" <schampion () warren-news com> To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declan () well com> Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 09:08:30 -0400 Declan, I thought your readers might be interested in a story I wrote for this morning's Washington Internet Daily. I'm most interested in Billy Pitt's comments. I wonder if anyone else thinks MP3.com, Napster and others can make this a campaign issue? -- Sasha Sasha Samberg-Champion Communications Daily, Washington Internet Daily (202) 872-9202 x 371 FAX (202) 293-3435 SChampion () warren-news com {ONLINE MUSIC BILL} introduced by Boucher would overturn court decision against MP3.com. Major consideration expected next year. Boucher Starts 'Education' Process With Online Music Bill Jump-starting a conversation that's expected to be loud in next year's Congress, Rep. Boucher (D-Va.) introduced a bill (HR-5275) Mon. evening that would overturn the MP3.com court decision and otherwise reform copyright law for music over the Internet. The bill would allow consumers to store their own music and access it from an Internet site, which is how MP3.com characterizes its controversial service. The company is facing millions of dollars in fines following a successful suit by the recording industry. The bill's introduction followed a heavy Capitol Hill lobbying campaign by MP3.com in the last month. "It's clear that many of our copyright laws are from another era," Boucher told us Tues. "They are not strictly applicable in the age of the Internet." He characterized MP3.com's acts as "technical violations" of copyright law according to the letter but not the spirit of the law, and said the case provides "a current example" of the need to update the law. Since customers are copying and downloading only music they already have bought, Boucher said, "neither the record companies nor the songwriters nor the recording artists lose a penny in sales." He said the next few years will see a host of new technological conveniences for transporting a consumer's own music, including streaming to cars or a friend's house, and copyright law now poses "a barrier to the effective use of this new technology... I believe it is time that we unshackled this promising new Internet technology." "Our goal is not to try to move this legislation this fall" with only a few days remaining, Boucher said, but rather to "begin a conversation... I want other members of Congress to learn about this issue and understand... that conveniences can be introduced without costing anyone anything." He said he will reintroduce the bill in the next Congress. In a statement introduced with the bill, Boucher said polls showed 79% of frequent Internet users believed MP3.com-type services should be legal: "Our legislation will ensure that this wholly legitimate public expectation is not thwarted." He has 3 co-sponsors, Reps. Burr (R-N.C.), LaHood (R-Ill.) and Upton (R-Mich.). Boucher carefully distinguished the MP3.com service from that of Napster, which doesn't require a consumer to buy a CD before downloading it. "I make no comment about the Napster circumstance," he told us. "That's a more complex issue we will have to address another day." MP3.com's lead lobbyist, Billy Pitts, applauded the bill's early introduction, saying he faces "a very big educational process" to show lawmakers the measure's importance before serious discussion begins next year. He also said it would aid his efforts to make music downloads a campaign issue this fall. "There's a good possibility it would become an issue," Pitts said. "We're working on a mobilization effort" to recruit MP3.com users, particularly young ones, he said: "We hopefully can announce something later. The content industries reacted quickly, circulating a letter on the Hill calling Boucher's bill "misguided as a matter of public policy and grossly unfair to creators." Joining Recording Industry Assn. of America Pres. Hilary Rosen and other music groups signing the letter was MPAA Pres. Jack Valenti. "If MP3.com's proposal were enacted, it would set a precedent for other commercial enterprises to refuse to pay for the transmission and copying of any copyrighted material over the Internet including books, software, movies or videogames," the executives said. They said the marketplace "already is working" to license MP3.com's services, with 4 of the 5 major record labels having reached agreement with the company: "This new proposal would undercut these voluntary settlement agreements." The executives also disputed the claim by Boucher and MP3.com that users already owned the CDs in question when copied, saying they "could have been borrowed, stolen or even... illegally pirated."
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- FC: MP3.com pledges to make music downloads a "campaign issue" Declan McCullagh (Sep 28)