(left to right: David Beal, National Geographic Entertainment; Peter Jenner, visionary music manager; Alec Ounsworth, of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; Justin Oullette, Muxtape)
I had the chance today to see the second half of the Future of Music Coalition’s Policy Day conference. They might as well call it “The all-the-things-Andy-cares-about-in-music-and-law Conference.” I’d swear they designed this event for me. To do it real justice would lead to a several-thousand-word post, but I know from experience that you guys don’t read those, so I’ll keep it short and to the point:
Keynote at the address was Mr. Michael Copps, acting Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. This man is so unlike the previous FCC Chairs it’s downright inspiring. Here’s a real example of how the Obama administration’s “Hope” is spreading through his government. Copp’s 20 minute speech was all about the rebirth of “localism” in broadcast communications. While very careful not to say this debate is entirely along the lines of regulation vs. deregulation, he notes how deregulation and the removal of area monopoly restrictions (which he promised will not happen again under this watch) has nationalized an industry that really should be kept local, for a variety of reasons. He inherited a real nasty situation with the now-famous digital television changeover taking effect next week, and no doubt he will be the target of a variety of bad press as a result of his role. Let it be said now that he is a great speaker with a variety of very good ideas. Let him not be judged by this one (inevitably disastrous) situation alone.
Panel one this afternoon consisted of Rick Carnes, President of the Songwriters Guild of America; David Carson, General Counsel of the US Copyright Office; Zahavah Levine, Chief Counsel at YouTube; Steve Marks, Executive VP and General Counsel of the RIAA; Hal Ponder, Director of Governmental Relations for the American Federation of Musicians; and Gigi Sohn, President of Public Knowledge. These were, without a dobut, the very best and brightest in the field of music and IP today, representing all walks of the professional music life. The panel was moderated by Walter McDonough, General Counsel for the Future of Music Coalition, Bostonian, and all-around great guy.
The discussion focused around when, where, and how IP schemes can be used to address the problems of the music web economy, and how these people (easily the strongest “heads at the table”) plan to address these issues. Naturally, looking over the names, you can tell that the crew did not see eye to eye on many (if any) of these arguments. Discussion went back and forth on how copyright policy would look under the Obama Administration, whether it would be put closer to the “front-and-center” or this administration versus those past, whether and how compulsory licensing should be applied to YouTube, whether or not the compulsory mechanical license which protects performers covering songs should be extended to home-videos on YouTube, whether and how the economic stimulus bill may or may not have had a provision in there permitting ISPs to do copyright filtering, and analysis of Sony v. Universal, Eldred v. Ashcroft, and a few patent and copyright cases working their way up to the Supreme Court right now.
I can’t do the discussion any level of justice, so once FMC posts it I’ll link to it here. A few big takeaways:
- First and foremost, the American Federation of Musicians, the largest musician union in the country, came out in support of network neutrality today. That’s big.
- Keep a sharp eye out for the case of Cartoon Network, LP v. CSC Holdings, Inc. (sometimes being called the “Cablevision DVR Case”). The case concerns, inter alia, an assessment of Cablevisions’ DVR system under the lens of the Betamax “fair use through timeshifting defense.” The US Copyright Office and others are arguing that it’s about much more than that, but the panel kept going back to that.
- In the House version of the stimulus bill, but not in the Senate version, there is $50 million set aside for the National Endowment for the Arts. The one thing this panel did unanimously agree on: we’re hoping that after conferral the $50 million stays in the final version of the bill.
- Interesting statistic from Ms. Levine of YouTube – every minute, 19 hours of footage is uploaded onto YouTube. Hence, all the filtering and content control that is done has to be done either by he community or through an automated system.
- While I disagreed with his whole approach to the “piracy” issue, I have to give Rick Carnes a great deal of credit for opening my eyes to the world of non-performing songwriters, and the unique difficulties of working these people into modern compensation schemes.
- With these people at the table, we are a long ways off from coming to any real consensus. Copyright law, like many other forms of law, is a system that has been layered on, over a great deal of time. In order to solve the problems that these major players have, we have to sort out some major old-fashioned elements of copyright law. Sadly, the issue extends beyond the scope of copyright law into contracts that were made between songwriters, artists, and record companies years ago. You can’t go back and renegotiate all those contracts, so even if the law were to change other efforts would have to be made to help those who negotiated deals years ago.
- I found Mr. Marks a refreshingly smart voice to come out of the RIAA. However, a bone I have to pick with his argument (or, perhaps more precisely, an issue I have with his approach to the argument) is this: he spent a good deal of time talking about empowering ISPs to remove “unlawful content, such as child pornography and internet piracy.” Putting the two in the same sentence is a terribly off-putting and disingenuous argument tactic. Child pornography is a gravely serious and criminal act, conducted by some of the most socially vile people in the world, exploiting the most-private elements of humanity at a time when people are emotionally weakest. It is one of the most serious crimes facing the world today, and is a crime of strict and abosolute nature – you either commit child pornography or you don’t. Copyright, while having serious economic and cultural implications, does not even come close in terms of severity, and is not an absolute crime – copyright violations may or may not be illegal, based on a myriad of factors. To compare the two is insulting, and to try and rationalize the restriction of the latter by mentioning the former is not going to win the RIAA any friends.
While the first panel made me wonder if we’ll ever resolve these issues, the second brought back a lot of hope and confidence in my industry. Sitting at the table were David Beal, president of National Geographic Entertainment (which includes a music label, broadcasts, and a variety of other media); Peter Jenner, former manager of Pink Floyd, The Clash, Ian Dury and the Blockheads, current manager of Billy Bragg, and all around visionary currently working as President Emeritus of the International Music Managers’ Forum; Alec Ounsworth of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah; and Justin Ouellette of Muxtape. All found success approaching the sale of music in new and interesting perspectives. Jenner started the conversation talking about an open music licensing system currently being tested in the Isle of Mann (which I didn’t know, but apparently is treated as an independent political entity ruled by the Crown of England, thus having its own laws, including copyright), where users pay a fee, and then that fee is collected and given to the music industry, and in exchange the residents of the Isle get to download and share music freely. Beal talked of how he tries to negotiate different licenses for different content distribution methods in the hundred-something countries where they film and play National Geographic videos. Ounsworth talked of how CYHSY used the Internet and other simple grass-roots tactics to sell their self-titled record, and how their generous attitude towards sharing online helped build and launch their careers. Ouellette told the story of Muxtape, which needs no description (click on his link above).
All in all, a fascinating exchange of ideas, and the kind of conversations that need to be happening more frequently if we are to change the way in which the public and the law approach music. My only regret is that the two panels couldn’t exchange ideas in tandem. I’d love to hear the VP at the RIAA try to explain why Ouelette’s Muxtape had to close to his face, and see if CYHSY and the musicians’ unions agree with him.
(
Enjoy!
