It can be dangerous when Congress stays in session to solve a crisis. Those not on the teams working there, continue to work on other things. While all the focus on what’s going on in Washington has to do with the financial meltdown and the efforts to try and stop the melting, other things are going on while Congress is still in session. Some of which are mundane, but others that have far reaching impact on tech, the Internet, and entertainment.
Pandora is begging for help because a bill that would effectively support the ludicrous rise in royalties that Pandora and other Internet Radio providers would have to pay looks like it is going to go through. I’ve written about this before, and it looks like the bad guys are going to win this one. There are some interesting allies here though. The RIAA and the National Association of Broadcasters are both in favor of this bill. The RIAA because it needs money to pay its shark tank full of lawyers and the NAB because they are afraid of the competition. What’s intriguing here, is that the RIAA is turning its gaze on the the NAB business model slowly but surely.
Also, Congress is about to pass a bill that will create a Copyright Czar in the Executive Branch, although efforts succeeded in stripping out a provision that would have made the Justice Department go after offenders, then giving the winnings to the copyright holders. All kinds of mixed up stuff and alliances here, as the White House isn’t taking too kindly to having Congress usurp its prerogatives. I have to love this quote from the US Chamber of Commerce though: a win for both parties and, more importantly, for America's innovators, workers whose jobs rely on intellectual property, and consumers who depend on safe and effective products.
The translation of that simply means that without this bill, the RIAA would have to reduce the number of lawyers on retainer. The innovation they are talking about, is the creative way they keep coming up with to sue those they deem guilty.
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