IP: SMART IDEA FOR E-MUSIC SWAPPING

[David Farber <dfarber () earthlink net>]

If I read this right I will have the privalage of being taxed by the media companies for thibgsi have no interest in 
hearing, watching etc. Bull sh-t. 


-----Original Message-----
From: "the terminal of Geoff Goodfellow" <geoff () iconia com>
Date: Wed, 8 May 2002 13:11:28 
To: "Dave E-mail Pamphleteer Farber" <farber () cis upenn edu>
Subject: SMART IDEA FOR E-MUSIC SWAPPING

SMART IDEA FOR E-MUSIC SWAPPING

By BEN SILVERMAN

CRYING foul won't benefit the music industry much longer.

Sooner or later a viable solution to the problem of online music-swapping
will have to be enacted. The King of the Peer-To-Peer Space thinks it has
such a solution.

Sharman Networks, the Australian company that operates the wildly popular
KaZaA file-sharing service, is pushing a proposal that would affect the
entire technology sector and finally pay out royalties for digital music
transfers. Thus far reaction to the proposal has been mixed.

"What Sharman Networks appears to be proposing is a compulsory license and
we would be opposed to that. We believe this is something the market should
decide," a spokesperson for the Recording Industry Association of America
told The Post.

Sharman's idea is an Intellectual Property Use Fee (IPUF). It amounts to a
compulsory license exacted on the entire supply chain of digital music from
computer makers to Internet service providers to device makers.

"I am absolutely confident that even a low-level of royalty [from the IPUF]
would produce in its first year a minimum of $1 billion in direct payments
to artists," Philip Corwin, a partner at Washington, D.C. law firm Butera &
Andrews and the lead lobbyist for Sharman Networks told The Post.

"When can the record labels produce the first billion in revenue for
artists?"

The IPUF, Corwin says, is getting keen interest from artists and the tech
community. Sharman hopes that it can successfully lobby for an in-depth
study into the viability of the IPUF.

Tech companies meanwhile are quickly finding themselves caught in the
crossfire between the entertainment industry and file-sharing companies
thanks to a bill introduced by Senate Commerce Chairman Fritz Hollings
(Dem - S.C.) that would set federally mandated copyright protection
standards.

Tech firms say the bill would limit innovation. Capitol Hill insiders say
the bill doesn't have enough support to pass and Hollings has already moved
onto a new project; an Internet privacy bill.

Representatives from numerous tech companies refused to comment on the IPUF
proposal.

But speaking on the condition of anonymity, an executive at one of the
world's largest computer makers said that Sharman's proposal might be an apt
middleground.

"We're being dragged into a situation that we have nothing to do with," the
executive told The Post.

"But it's become clear that we're going to have to take some sort of
responsibility for enabling the distribution of copyrighted material. If
that's the case, something like the IPUF is attractive compared to what
Hollings is proposing."

Corwin, who previously lobbied on behalf of MP3.com, says that the IPUF
makes sense because so many people are reaping the rewards of online music
distribution, except the artists themselves. And Corwin says that
compensating the artists is Sharman's main concern.

"A lot of different parties; computer manufacturers, software providers,
telecom and broadband companies, and providers of peer-to-peer services are
benefiting from widespread availabilty of digital music."

"Basically the entire legacy of content from the music business is
unprotected and everyone is making a buck except the people who created it."

http://www.nypost.com/technology/47329.htm

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geoff.goodfellow () iconia com, Prague CZ * tel/mobil +420 (0)603 706 558
"success is getting what you want & happiness is wanting what you get"
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/01/biztech/articles/17drop.html


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