June 09, 2009

What we gleaned from the World Copyright Summit this week (aside from the fact that protecting IP is vital to our future economic health and strengthening our competitiveness in the global economy – duh):

We discovered that NAB may be able to mobilize their grassroots, but the organization is less effective mobilizing a good argument to defend the status quo. 

How do we know this? Our own Mitch Bainwol spoke today on a panel at the Summit moderated by former RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen. The panel’s title was “The U.S. Agenda: With a New Administration and a New Congress in Place – What Now?” and other participants included Gigi Sohn from Public Knowledge, Patrick Ross from the Copyright Alliance, Jonathan Potter from DiMA, Benjamin Ivins from NAB and Del Bryant from BMI.

The panel was informative and not without a few respectful but sometimes cantankerous jabs. After the discussion turned to each represented organization’s legislative priorities for the upcoming year, as expected, Mitch and Mr. Ivins engaged in a heated debate on the Performance Rights Act (PRA), a bill pending before Congress that nullifies broadcasters’ longstanding exemption in copyright law that has let broadcasters off the hook from paying any royalties to the performers and creators of music they play on AM/FM radio. After the question was put to Mr. Ivins as to why NAB was abusing their public interest obligations as a FCC licensee for their own private financial interests by refusing to air ads that sought support for the PRA or engaging in artist intimidation, Mr. Ivins declined to answer but explained to the audience that one legislative priority of NAB’s is to seek re-transmission fees from cable operators who use the broadcasters’ content to sell cable subscriptions and profit from this content (hmmm…sound familiar?).

After Mitch articulated why the broadcasters’ exemption is such an historic anomaly, Mr. Ivins retorted that the only anomaly is that there is a public performance right at all. The huh?  Mitch went on to explain that the music industry is moving aggressively to embrace its digital future – indeed, there are now hundreds of legal digital services in the marketplace that offer a wide variety of ways to access music, from Internet radio sites like Slacker to social networking sites like MySpace to subscription services like Napster and Rhapsody to download services like Amazon.mp3 and iTunes – and the music companies are committed to giving fans more.  So it only makes sense that the laws that govern the music marketplace ensure a level playing field for all distribution platforms. Ultimately, because of all this digital innovation, we are no longer in a world where radio is the sole outlet for fans to hear music.   Radio is living in the past. 

We won’t go in to Mr. Ivins’ response (we’re sure you can find it elsewhere on this Internet thing), but let’s just say it was the type of thing someone resorts to when they’ve lost the debate.  Nonetheless, the panel was informative and entertaining and served as a great kickoff to an important Summit.   Kudos to all who participated.  What we know is that after hearing so many voices speak in support of the PRA today, we are more energized than ever. Onward and upward.

Cara Duckworth