New Digital Media Assn. To Focus On Technology Issues

WASHINGTON, D.C.‹The new realities of the music business have given rise to a new organization‹ the Digital Media Assn. (DiMA).
The group‹formed by seven of the most prominent companies that provide technology enabling the digital transmission of music and video content‹came into being when its members realized their concerns weren't necessarily in sync with those of existing music industry groups such as the Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA), according to Seth Greenstein, the association's Washington-based counsel.
The charter members are a2b music, broadcast.com, CDnow, ENSO Audio Imaging, Liquid Audio, RealNetworks, and TCI Music (Billboard Bulletin, June 18).
Although DiMA officially took form just three days before Greenstein testified at the latest subcommittee hearing on the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) legislation, Greenstein says the association had been in the works for some time.
"This was just the first opportunity to make a public statement," he says. "It is unfortunate that it is in a forum where we have different interests in the recording and music industries."
DiMA is at odds with the RIAA and other industry groups over some provisions in the WIPO enabling legislation that it believes to be "anti-technology," among other issues (see story, page 12).
Greenstein says DiMA's priority mandate is to educate label executives. "Any time a new technology becomes available, an understandable, instinctive reaction is concern," he says. "We would hope the recording companies would come to understand that we are committed to making the technology advantageous for the recording industry and that there are common interests.
"We hope over the next couple of months of our relations with the recording companies, we will begin cooperatively working on the projects to make sure music is properly identified online and properly protected."
DiMA intends to begin a broad membership-outreach program during the next month. "Our basic goal is to promote the interests of companies that develop technologies for transmitting and retailing music and video online and to represent the interests of the companies that do the retailing and do the transmitting online," says Greenstein.
Beyond WIPO, Greenstein says, DiMA will focus on other electronic commerce issues, including encryption, the creation and implementation of digital signatures, online advertising, and privacy standards.