Congress Holds Hearing on Digital Music
July 11 -- Who knew that Orrin Hatch liked Creed?
Or that the Utah Republican knew how to download music from the popular rock band off the Internet?
But as a Senate hearing on copyright issues relating to online dissemination of digital music began today, Hatch handily downloaded a Creed tune to demonstrate the ease of the process.
Drummer Lars Ulrich of the heavy metal band Metallica condemned online song-swapping entities such as Napster Inc. and MP3.com for giving away others’s music.
“Napster hijacked our music without asking,” said Ulrich, who went on to liken what Napster users do to theft.
Metallica brought a lawsuit in mid-April against the company for copyright infringement and racketeering several months after the Recording Industry Association of America sued the company on similar grounds last year.
But rock musician Roger McGuinn, formerly of the Byrds, was not so critical of Napster. He said record companies don’t always pay out royalties as they should, meaning artists lose anyway. And McGuinn testified that Web sites, in fact, have renewed people’s interest in the Byrds’ music.
Music Site CEOs Speak
Napster CEO Hank Barry and MP3.com CEO Michael Robertson defended their companies.
Pointing to strong record sales, Napster’s Barry maintained the online music trading his site facilitates is perfectly legal. “Copyright has always been about balance,” he said.
Robertson strove to distinguish his Internet music storage site MP3.com from quasi-rival Napster, stressing that today’s Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings, which have been dubbed “Napster hearings,” are misnamed.
“It’s consumer hearings,” said Robertson.
Robertson said that while his company was adhering to conditions resulting from settlements of lawsuits claiming copyright infringement disputes with two major record labels, he also said they could ultimately mean the end of his company. Several other lawsuits are still pending.
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