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Re: Rep. Boucher's new bill |
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Wed, 10 Jul 2002 11:50:34 -0400 |
Jonathan,
This is a bold bill - it has huge implications - and it will be
seriously and heatedly embattled. It took serious guts on the part of
Rep. Boucher to introduce it, considering who will feel threatened by
it. Aside from standing up for the consumer's rights to make backups of
material for their own use, and allowing web radio and web stores to
function normally while trying to promote this material (which should be
in the best interest of the RIAA) - and putting these items into law, it
has some surprising points:
* Address older "mechanical" rights of copyright law by creating
"safe harbor" provisions. This would let a user or potential licensee
of music pay a kind of "royalty deposit" with the federal copyright
office while the sometimes lengthy search for a copyright owner or
publisher is underway.
a Major issue is one of "what is a mechanical copy?" - Three years ago
it was determined in the courts that mp3s are mechanical copies and so
fall under the interest of the Recording Industry, who deal in
mechanicals (records) - as opposed to broadcast - which is the realm of
ASCAP, BMI and the like who collect royalties for the songwriter. What
Rep. Boucher is proposing is that moneys collected for downloads or
broadcast on the web be channeled eventually to the copyright owner -
which may not lead to the pockets of the members of the RIAA - it may
instead lead to the writer or performing artist directly. The RIAA claim
they hold 80% of the copyrights world wide - but we all know that Labels
sign only 1% of 1% of of the artists of quality out there. If copyright
owners were compensated directly - it would effectively bypass the RIAA.
This point should make them mad.
* Require "non-discrimination" in the licensing of music inventories
by major labels in the music industry.
Boucher said the idea is if a record label licenses a wholly-owned
subsidiary it created to deliver online music, it needs to give a
comparable license to a competitor. "I think it's essential that we
engender a positive competition in the delivery of music on the
Internet and avoid a major duopoloy" among major record labels that
together control about 80 percent of existing music libraries.
There is nothing more frightening to the RIAA than the free market. They
are suffering (if they are suffering) because they are trying to sell a
product that people need less and less at a more and more inflated
price. This point should make them scared.
* Require an examination of programming restrictions.
Boucher said current law restricts the number of tracks that Webcasters
or digital satellite radio broadcasters can play within a given
three-hour period. The theory is to restrict the recording and pirating
of digital works. But the law does not apply to terrestrial
broadcasters. "It's what you might call an asynchronous law," he said
of current DMCA provisions. "My solution is let's not apply it to
anybody."
Very true - this has been a glaring inconsistency. Like most of the
other bills, you can see the motivation of the profiteers in it more
than the logic of any kind of law.
* Require direct payment to artists: Current law says royalty
payments are to be shared among the recording companies and performing
artists. "Our bill requires that these payments instead be made
directly to the artists or to a collective organization representing
the artists."
This one is the kicker. This gets to the main point which is that the
market no longer needs "Record Companies". There will always be a need
for Publicity Machines, Solid Media Manufacturers, (like people who make
cds or hard drives or cd burners or crystal storage rings or whatever)
Recording Engineers/ Music Producers, (this requires real talent,
believe me - machines can't replace them) and Musicians. What we have a
rapidly dwindling need for is Records or CDs and Distribution of these
materials. Unfortunately, this is the main function of a Record Company.
Boucher knows this, and I'm sure he's aware that the industry will slam
him with everything they have to try to stay alive for a few more years.
He knows that for better or worse (I think for better) we are at a point
in the history of music where matter doesn't matter. We've all spent our
cd money on computers & an internet connection and we expect it to pay
off.
that's the tune that I'm humming.
Jim
On Tuesday, July 9, 2002, at 04:37 PM, Jonathan Watterson wrote:
Hey, music law consultant, tell me your opinion of this:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=35607&cid=0&pid=0&startat=&threshold=
4&mode=nested&commentsort=0&op=Change
Boucher is a long-time good guy and DMCA opponent. He's proposing this
new bill to revise copyright & such for CDs and webcasting. It looks
good to me. Do you see anything to object to, or that he's missing?
Thanks,
J
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