The recording industry is stockpiling an arsenal of top Republicans as it tries to permanently blow Napster out of the water. On Tuesday, the Recording Industry Association of America named former Montana Governor Marc Racicot to its team of consultants that includes former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS). The move comes as pro-Napster rhetoric from Senate Judiciary Committee head Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has increased in volume over the past several months, including a recent speech in which he decried the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to uphold an injunction against Napster.
The recording industry is stockpiling an arsenal of top Republicans as it tries to permanently blow Napster out of the water.
On Tuesday, the Recording Industry Association of America named former Montana Governor Marc Racicot to its team of consultants that includes former Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS).
The move comes as pro-Napster rhetoric from Senate Judiciary Committee head Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has increased in volume over the past several months, including a recent speech in which he decried the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to uphold an injunction against Napster.
“They are trying to tie up every prominent Republican they can think of now,” said Philip Corwin, a partner at Washington, D.C. firm Butera and Andrews. “They need to be worried about compulsory licenses getting developed for services like Napster, so they are trying to get as many bodies as they can to fight anything that might come their way.
The move comes just three days before a California district court judge will decide the terms of an injunction that could shut down Napster’s file-trading service.
The former governor brings clout to the recording industry, as he was reportedly on the short list to take the mantle of United States Attorney General because of his close ties with the Bush family, Corwin said.
During a media telephone briefing, both RIAA CEO Hilary Rosen and former Gov. Racicot said that issues of intellectual property were bipartisan. The governor, however, began his remarks saying the tenants of copyright laws were based on conservative principles.
“This debate over intellectual property has wide-ranging implications beyond just what is going on in the recording industry,” Racicot said. “This is a fundamental property right, and it has been for two centuries. Without the protection of private property for the last 200 years, we wouldn’t have the progress in this country that we’ve had.”
The governor said he decided to join the RIAA’s cause because he felt the concerns of the American people weren’t being addressed. He said that while the Napster case has become very high profile, there hadn’t been a thoughtful debate on the issues.
“I’m not aware of too many court cases that have generated this much interest not only here, but around the world,” Racicot said. “This is something that is extremely important to the country.”
Rosen said that the RIAA and its new consultants would be hitting Capitol Hill with a two-pronged attack aimed at the influential leaders in the House of Representative and Senate.
The recording industry will present a study that details the economics of creating an album, presumably to counter the recently released study by Napster which contends that traditional retail distribution drives down the profit margin for major labels to only 35 cents per CD.
Rosen also said the group will be presenting the major labels’ digital music business models to those who believe that the recording industry has intentionally avoided moving its assets online.
“We are trying to get back to the basics,” Rosen said. “It rarely gets reported that we have tens of thousands of songs available online.”
The latest political maneuvering comes as Napster faces a district court judge drafting an injunction that would effectively shut the service down.
On Feb. 12, a federal appeals court modified a request for a temporary injunction against Napster. As part of its ruling, the court held that District Court Judge Marilyn Patel would need to modify her original injunction to encompass only the file-trading portion of the application.
Author: Brad King
News Service: Wired News
URL: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42054,00.html
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