AJ: off-topic but important

From: Gen Kanai (gkanai@earthlink.net)
Date: Wed Jul 12 2000 - 09:52:00 MET DST

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    Today the US Congress heard from many in the digital/internet industry
    about the future of music online. I thought it would be important for all
    of us on the AJ listserv to be aware of these issues as it may affect
    certainly those of us in the US before we realize it.

    I urge you to check out Onehouse CEO, Jim Griffin's comments to Congress at
    http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/7112000_jg.htm

    Another article besides the Wired one is available here
    http://www.inside.com/story/Story_Cached/0,2770,6643_9,00.html

    Gen

     From Wired News, available online at:
    http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,37485,00.html
    Napster Goes to Washington
    by Brad King
    11:55 a.m. Jul. 11, 2000 PDT

    Digital music heavyweights gathered in Washington, D.C. to give
    testimony at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on downloading and
    file trading, but the two most controversial figures took over the
    event.

    Tuesday's hearing marked the first time that Napster CEO Hank Barry
    and founder Shawn Fanning would publicly meet some of their main
    detractors, including Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich, MP3.com CEO
    Michael Robertson, and Sony Music Entertainment New Technology
    President Fred Erlich.

    The Senators coordinating the "Future of Digital Music" hearing were
    more interested in learning how music and technology can peacefully
    converge than in allowing the combative and often litigious companies
    to escalate and air their grievances.

    "The committee will examine the intersection of these new technologies
    and the copyrights of music creators, and explore shared opportunities
    available to both the artists and technologists," said a written
    release about the hearing.

    Each speaker was invited to represent his particular interest in the
    digital music era, but Barry and Fanning's presence quickly turned the
    proceedings into a debate on the merits and pitfalls of Napster.

    Saying that his company's user base had swelled to 20 million, Barry
    reiterated his frequently stated point that like other advances in
    technology, Napster allows people to sample more music, which
    ultimately leads to more people buying CDs.

    "Napster does not copy files," Barry said. "It does not provide the
    technology for copying files. Napster does not make MP3 files. It does
    not transfer files. Napster simply fascilitates communication among
    people interested in music. It is a return to the original information
    sharing approach of the Internet, allowing for a depth and scale of
    information that is truly revolutionary."

    Napster's adversaries countered by talking up the importance of
    protecting songwriters and musicians while pushing forward with their
    business models.

    "If the market is being driven more by perception than by the
    principles and rules that artists, consumers, government, industry,
    and professionals have set out, then effective governance no longer
    works and anarchy has taken over," Emusic.com CEO Gene Hoffman said.
    Hoffman, whose company sells digital music, did not advocate
    government intervention, but he did recognize the need to control
    copyright in the digital music era. But he felt the different
    industries -- musicians, labels, and technologists would work together
    in ironing out the details of how to protect copyrights.

    Robertson who has criticized Napster since his own battle with the
    major labels began, focused a bulk of his time demonstrating the
    my.mp3.com service that allows users to stream their personal music
    collection from a central server.

    For all of the posturing, the arguments that took place might be moot
    in just a few months, said hearing observer Jonathan Potter, the
    executive director of the Digital Media Association.

    "In time, perhaps less time than today's witnesses contemplate, DiMA
    anticipates that file-sharing technologies, like the VCR and cassette
    tapes and the wax records of our past, will be embraced by the two
    most important components of the music value chain -- creators and
    consumers."

    In a welcome respite from talk of the legal wrangling which have
    engulfed the industry over the past months, Onehouse CEO Jim Griffin
    delivered a heartfelt plea to the committee.

    While advocating the delivery of music that "feels" free to the
    consumers -- by creating service models which stream music on-demand
    in subscription and advertising supported models -- he also implored
    the committee to remember that this argument will set the benchmark
    for how other information will be delivered to consumers.

    "Librarians schooled me in what could now be called the instruments of
    piracy," Griffin said. "The library was the first place that I saw a
    photocopy machine and a tape recorder. Use of these copying tools was
    openly encouraged..."

    Griffin said that since the music industry is going to be developing
    the first business models that other electronic publishers will
    follow, the restrictions that are placed upon it need to be very
    carefully crafted.
    "No one called us pirates… We were scholars."

    According to Potter, committee chairman Orrin Hatch said that if
    record companies and music publishers don't reasonably license their
    music and make it available in various file formats, they would
    consider legislation to force the companies to license their music to
    all comers.

    Hatch also invited Hilary Rosen, the president of the Recording
    Industry Association of America, to the witness table where he
    proceeded to question her regarding the fair use clause, which has
    been at the center of both the MP3.com and Napster defense in their
    respective lawsuits against the recording industry.

    Hatch asked Rosen if several hypothetical situations, such as making
    an audiocassette of a CD to give to a spouse, constituted fair use.
    Refusing to answer, she replied that Hatch was "leading me down the
    Napster path."

    Copyright 1994-2000 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.



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