FC: MP3.com pledges to make music downloads a "campaign issue"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********
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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