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To: Ron C who wrote (15217)	9/30/2000 2:03:28 PM
From: Ron C	Respond to of 60323

OT: Congressman Backs MP3.com by Brad King 3:00 a.m. Sep. 30, 2000 PDT The Internet is wreaking havoc on copyright law, and one congressman wants that to stop. wired.com Representative Rick Boucher (D-Virginia), who has some harsh words for the record label that continues to pursue MP3.com in its copyright infringement suit, introduced a bill that could save the digital music company from extinction. See also: D.C. Awash in Entertainment Cash Banking on Musicbank Congressman: I Want My MP3 Find it: Lycos Music's MP3 Central Hear how MP3 Rocks the Web "I don't think Congress should stand by and watch MP3.com get put out of business," Boucher said. "We need to modernize that copyright law." Last Monday, Boucher -- along with three Republicans -- introduced legislation that would make it legal to create a database of sound recordings for the sole purpose of transmitting those recordings to individuals who had previously purchased music. In April, a federal judge ruled that MP3.com had violated copyright with the creation of its my.mp3.com service -- which allowed users to stream music from a database of music the company stored on its Web servers. Before damages had been set in the case, the company settled its dispute with four of the major labels. The Universal Music Group held out and received a judgment for a staggering $118 million. Boucher said the legislation is needed because it appears as if Universal was attempting to take control of a technology that MP3.com had creating by using antiquated copyright laws that were never intended to govern the Internet. In its copyright infringement lawsuit, Universal won a judgement against MP3.com that could be worth up to $250 million in damages. That verdict would threaten MP3.com's financial viability, Boucher said. "I am thoroughly convinced the interests of the copyright owners are fully protected," Boucher said. "But one of the copyright owners, the Universal Music Group, has refused to follow the lead of the other copyright owners in settling the suit." "My guess is that they will launch their own similar service, which might be an antitrust violation -- which would be another conversation for another day." A spokesman for the Universal Music Group said the company does not respond to questions concerning ongoing litigation. Boucher's "guess" of labels setting up their own distribution services has already started to come true. With backing from BMG and Universal and a deal with Virgin Megastores, Musicbank is set to debut sometime before the end of the year. Earlier in the year, Sony announced plans to unveil a streaming digital locker service. The leaves only labels EMI and Warner Music, whose merger now seems to be in serious trouble, without announced plans to launch streaming locker services. While Boucher's legislation has come late in the game for MP3.com, it could still help salvage the company. The legislation has almost no chance of passing in the next two weeks before Congress convenes for the rest of the year, Boucher said. However, he will reintroduce the bill at the beginning of the next session with more than just the three original sponsors. If the bill gets passed and become law before the end of the trial, Boucher speculated that it might influence the amount of damages awarded by a federal judge since the my.mp3.com service would be legal at that point. "The goals of good policy making should be to write intellectual property laws that protect the copyright interest of the creators of entertainment while allowing the full and complete use of technology to distribute that entertainment," said Boucher. "We are not getting that result in the MP3.com case."