E-commerce Tops Industry Agendas For 106th Congress

WASHINGTON, D.C.‹Although the myriad issues surrounding electronic commerce will be debated by the recording industry and federal lawmakers during the 106th Congress, which convened Jan. 6, few legislative issues thus far are on the agenda of industry groups for 1999.
Performing right groups and music publishers will also be working to implement the changes brought about by the 1998 passage of the copyright-extension bill and U.S. ratification of the World Intellectual Property Organisation treaties.
"We don't have a proactive legislative agenda," says Hilary Rosen, president/CEO of the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA). "We have a lot of work to do [in the private sector] in the technology and music-marketing areas, but the big thing on Capitol Hill is the overall E-commerce policy and privacy and liability and commercial practices. And we'll be involved."
Adds Rosen, "I think we may see some debates over privacy issues. We may see some [debate] over consumer-credit kinds of issues and E-commerce commercial liability‹you know, like if I were selling music online, and somebody's computer crashes. Those kinds of issues will probably be discussed. I'm not sure how many specific legislative proposals we'll see. We don't have a list of "needs.' "
Copyright protection
Officials at ASCAP, BMI, and the National Music Publishers' Assn. also say their groups have not yet outlined any legislative agenda for the first session of Congress, but, like the RIAA, they will be monitoring hearings on E-commerce to make sure copyright protections for their members aren't impaired.
"You can bet there'll be some group trying to get something for free," says Fred Cannon, BMI's VP of government relations.
The groups also have to continue major private-sector fence-patching with their European counterparts. Societies across Europe are angered by an amendment to the U.S. copyright-extension bill that gives restaurants, taverns, and some retail outlets an exemption from paying royalty fees to play so-called background music (Billboard, Oct. 31, 1998).
trade complaint
A spokesman for the U.S. trade representative (USTR) said Jan. 6 that the European Commission has notified the USTR that it intends to initiate a trade complaint about the loss of general licensing income in the U.S. that the amendment could spur, affecting European collection societies and their songwriters.
Although the industry will lose some key Democratic supporters as a result of new committee assignments, Rosen says that she doesn't expect the changes to have an impact on record industry support on the Hill. However, she adds that the RIAA will be sorry to lose Senate Judiciary Committee ally Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is leaving that committee to take an assignment on the Finance Committee.
Another strong industry supporter, Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., is leaving the House Intellectual Property Subcommittee to take another assignment on the House Banking Committee.
"It's a disappointment Barney's leaving," Rosen says. "He'll stay on the [full] Judiciary Committee, though, and Howard Berman [D-Calif.] will take over as the ranking subcommittee guy. So that's good, and an important step."
Rosen forecasts that it's going to be "a different world" from the last Congress.
"You won't have, like, "commercial enemies' this time around," she says. "I think the allies in this will be everybody who's looking to develop legitimate online businesses‹everybody from the wires [telephone companies], to the mailers who ship the product, to the credit-card companies on down the line. And we'll be participating in the debate to make sure the record industry's interests are protected."