Digital Music Conference Promises Politics

W A S H I N G T O N, Jan. 10, 2001 -- You might expect a music-technology conference addressing topics like copyright law and Internet song swapping to meet in glitzy Hollywood orwired Silicon Valley, not starchy Washington.

But the first annual Coalition for the Future of MusicPolicy Conference is taking place today and Thursday on theshores of the Potomac, not the Pacific, in a sign of thegrowing federal role in the debate over who controlsintellectual property in the Age of Napster.

Experts say that as the music industry grapples with a hostof digital-age challenges, it’s inevitable that the battle willshift from courtrooms and boardrooms to the chambers ofCongress.

Congress first waded into the debate in 1998 when it passedthe Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which strengthened U.S.copyright law to protect music, movies and software fromdigital piracy.

Hailed by the music industry, the law has been criticized byothers who say it restricts “fair use” rules that allow thepublic to make copies of protected material for personal use.

“Both Silicon Valley and La La Land are turning theirattention to Washington because Washington has the ability tosignificantly mess things up,” said James Boyle, a DukeUniversity law professor and critic of the 1998 law, who willspeak at the conference on Wednesday.

Thus, in a schedule packed with industry heavyweights andhipster musicians, the biggest star is keynote speaker Sen.Orrin Hatch, the Utah Republican whose Judiciary Committeehosted a round of last summer’s heavyweight Metallica vs.Napster bout. (See related stories in right column.)

New Bills on the Horizon

Hatch advocated a hands-off approach in the wake of the Julyhearings, saying Napster should reach a settlement with themusic establishment. Since then, the controversialmusic-sharing system has signed revenue-sharing agreements withtwo music companies: industry giant BMG, through a deal with its parent company is Bertelsmann AG, and indie label Edel.(See related stories in right column.)

But Judiciary Committee spokeswoman Jeanne Lopato saidMonday that Hatch might introduce a bill addressing online songswapping this year.

Other lawmakers are testing the waters. In the House ofRepresentatives, Rep. Rick Boucher, the Virginia Democrat whoco-chairs the House Internet Caucus, has emerged as a supporterof broadened fair use laws. Last fall, he introduced a billprotecting online music storage systems like My.MP3.com, whichhas been the target of several industry lawsuits.

Observers said Democrats and Republicans do not line upneatly on either side of music-related issues.

“This is more individual than it is party lines,” said JayCooper, a Los Angeles attorney who represented a group ofmusicians who successfully lobbied Congress last summer torepeal a new law extending record-label control of artists’songs.

The conference will tackle a host of issues, including fairuse, the digital-copyright law, the collection of digitalroyalties and the post-Napster legal landscape. One panel pairsthe head of a much-hyped new audio-encryption standard with thePrinceton professor whose students claim to have cracked itscode.

“I think this whole conference is full of controversy,which is good, by the way,” said Cooper, who speaks today.

The conference was put together by a group calling itselfthe Future of Music Coalition, whose Web site features a spikymanifesto calling major record labels “exploiters” and claimingthe Recording Industry Association of America, the powerfulindustry lobbying group, cannot be trusted to representartists.

But executive director Jenny Toomey, who used to head thepunk band Tsunami, said the coalition aims mainly to raiseawareness and stimulate public debate. She pointed out thatRIAA President Hilary Rosen and representatives of severalmajor labels are all scheduled to speak.

“We want to be a think tank as opposed to an advocacygroup,” she said.

Toomey said the conference has signed up 750 attendees,including 300 musicians. She said she was pleased but notsurprised that the coalition, which did not exist six monthsago, has been able to generate such a buzz.

“You have to be kind of arrogant to do something likethis,” Toomey said.