More Internet Radio Legislation Info
Protecting Copyrights or Stifling Competition?
It's hard to find a digital music industry executive or Internet radio broadcasting service provider who would agree with the above statement of the bill's intent, however.
If the Perform Act were to pass in its current form, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Activism Coordinator Daniel O'Brien, "the winners, at least briefly, would be the record industry, which would temporarily be able to freeze in law their current ideal market position -- able to dictate terms to both the broadcasters and the technologists."
The implications of the bill and the precedent it could set are just as ominous, if not moreso, according to O'Brien.
"For everyone else, we'll get government-mandated technology decisions in radio and on the Web. We'll get cheap, open source innovation locked out of media devices," he predicted. "We'll see consumers hamstrung in their ability to do what they can do with lawfully acquired content in their own homes. It's not just about slowing the pace of improving media and technology in the consumer market -- it would turn it back."
In addition, O'Brien added, the bill proposes restrictions that would have banned new services such as TiVo, had they been applied to digital video.
"In the end, the RIAA and its members would lose as much as anyone else. Tying the hands of satellite radio and Internet audio isn't going to expand the market for musicians or their management," he said.
A Death Knell for MP3?
A section of the bill aimed at ensuring copyright and payment rights protection to musicians and recording companies by establishing what is now a proprietary DRM format as a standard may also deal a staggering, if not a knockout, blow to the MP3 format.
Used around the world by webcasters large and small, from individual hobbyists to industry giants such as Apple's iTunes and iPod services, MP3 has grown from the grassroots up to emerge as a de facto digital music standard.
If passed in its present form, the bill would also set what many consider an intrusive and unhealthy legislative precedent by establishing a preferential technological standard by government fiat, as opposed to allowing a standard to emerge through regulated market competition.
"It's my understanding that the only one [DRM format] out there that does what the language of the bill requires would be Windows Media DRM. So, yes, this provision could be considered a mandate of a Microsoft technology," said Robert Schwartz of the Home Recording Rights Coalition.
Asked whether this might be a death knell for the widespread, large-scale use of streaming MP3 as a format, Schwartz said, "It would be indeed."
Info provided by By Andrew K. Burger
TechNewsWorld
It's hard to find a digital music industry executive or Internet radio broadcasting service provider who would agree with the above statement of the bill's intent, however.
If the Perform Act were to pass in its current form, said the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Activism Coordinator Daniel O'Brien, "the winners, at least briefly, would be the record industry, which would temporarily be able to freeze in law their current ideal market position -- able to dictate terms to both the broadcasters and the technologists."
The implications of the bill and the precedent it could set are just as ominous, if not moreso, according to O'Brien.
"For everyone else, we'll get government-mandated technology decisions in radio and on the Web. We'll get cheap, open source innovation locked out of media devices," he predicted. "We'll see consumers hamstrung in their ability to do what they can do with lawfully acquired content in their own homes. It's not just about slowing the pace of improving media and technology in the consumer market -- it would turn it back."
In addition, O'Brien added, the bill proposes restrictions that would have banned new services such as TiVo, had they been applied to digital video.
"In the end, the RIAA and its members would lose as much as anyone else. Tying the hands of satellite radio and Internet audio isn't going to expand the market for musicians or their management," he said.
A Death Knell for MP3?
A section of the bill aimed at ensuring copyright and payment rights protection to musicians and recording companies by establishing what is now a proprietary DRM format as a standard may also deal a staggering, if not a knockout, blow to the MP3 format.
Used around the world by webcasters large and small, from individual hobbyists to industry giants such as Apple's iTunes and iPod services, MP3 has grown from the grassroots up to emerge as a de facto digital music standard.
If passed in its present form, the bill would also set what many consider an intrusive and unhealthy legislative precedent by establishing a preferential technological standard by government fiat, as opposed to allowing a standard to emerge through regulated market competition.
"It's my understanding that the only one [DRM format] out there that does what the language of the bill requires would be Windows Media DRM. So, yes, this provision could be considered a mandate of a Microsoft technology," said Robert Schwartz of the Home Recording Rights Coalition.
Asked whether this might be a death knell for the widespread, large-scale use of streaming MP3 as a format, Schwartz said, "It would be indeed."
Info provided by By Andrew K. Burger
TechNewsWorld