Month: November

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Musicians showed Barack Obama tons of support during his campaign for the White House this past year. Now it is time for Obama to show his support for music in naming a copyright czar, or officially known as intellectual property enforcement coordinator. This position was created by the Prioritizing Resources and Organization for Intellectual Property Act in October. The purpose is to coordinate efforts to stop piracy and copyright theft through agencies like the Department of Justice, the Patent and Trademark Office, and the US Trade Representative. Several names have surfaced as likely candidates. Music executives have mentioned Hal Ponder, director of government relations at the American Federation of Musicians and former director of policy for the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees. They want someone with experience with the government, copyright law, and who appreciates intellectual property. The music industry like Michele Ballantyne, senior VP of federal government and industry relations for the RIAA. She has a great track record of ties with Democrats. Victoria Espinel, of US Trade Representatives Office, and Bill Ivey, former head of the Country Music Federation and National Endowment for the Arts and the Recording Academy. The individual chosen will be highly scrutinized by both the content and technology industries. They would like someone with a liberal sense of fair use. Obama has also mentioned creating a position for official chief technology officer, which would favor such things as well. The industry also has a good friend in VP Joe Biden, who favors intellectual property.

Month: november

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A political win by Barack Obama and Joe Biden may be a great help to those in the music industry when dealing with intellectual property and copyright. Even though the views of these two people vary in certain areas on the issues, they definitely could help. Joe Biden has been a strong voice in Congress, and while some of the issues that he has tried to push for have not made it all the way through his activism has caught attention. He has been on the committee that all bills regarding intellectual property must pass through, has stood behind the Perform act, and was the first member of congress to hold a full committee hearing which looked at issues of piracy. He has published articles on piracy and also tried to bring amendments to the table to help in fight against it. While Biden is for copyright protection, Obama believes in Net Neutrality laws, and if elected may have Lawrence Lessig as the CFO who holds beliefs that are on the other end as Biden. Over all for the music and entertainment industry as a whole, a win by this team could help more than it could hurt.

Month: September

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Presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain have their campaigns for the White House in full gear. While they typically discuss big-ticket issues, there are several issues at hand that directly affect the music industry, especially in the digital realm. While not necessarily a digital issue, radio royalties are the main concern on the agenda of the RIAA. They believe the next Congress is when the matter will be settled. While there has been a lot of progress to get performance royalties paid to artists, there is also a strong lobbying presence for broadcasters who do not want to pay the royalty. The Democrats have more openly backed the music industry's side, and any gains they have in the House or Senate would be a help. Net-neutrality is where the two candidates differ the most. McCain does not believe in regulation of the Internet and bandwith, while Obama strongly supports network neutrality to preserve open competition on the Internet. McCain wants an open market approach, whereas Obama says he will appoint FCC commissioners to reinstate the original net neutrality projections that the FCC eliminated in 2005. The music industry has not taken an official stance on the matter, but many artists (especially indie) have voiced their support for net neutrality. Their concern is that independent artists will suffer from bigger labels and sites getting preferential treatment with higher Internet speeds and bandwith. Both candidates have pledged to put an end to piracy and protect intellectual property, but neither has given any specifics on how they intend to do so. Although, Obama's VP candidate Joe Biden was the founding chairman of the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. Internet sales tax is not a main issue for the music industry, but the possibility of such a tax would raise prices for digital downloads and would not help in convincing consumers to pay for music and not steal it. While neither candidate has directly addressed the issue in their campaign, McCain has in the past advocated for a permanent ban on taxing Internet access fees and online commerce.