................................. To leave Commie, hyper to http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html ................................. ===================================================================== THE INDUSTRY STANDARD'S M E D I A G R O K A Commentary on What the Press Is Reporting and Why ===================================================================== | http://www.thestandard.com | Monday, August 6, 2001 TOP GROKS ~~~~~~~~~ Will Music Execs Work This Week? Doesn't anybody take August off anymore? A flurry of developments in the online music business suggests that record company honchos, congressmen, judges, lawyers and, oh yeah, reporters are still hard at work, despite the arrival of the dog days of summer. The big news, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, is that the Department of Justice is looking into "possible anticompetitive problems" surrounding Pressplay and MusicNet, the joint ventures of the five major record labels. And then there's the bill intro- duced in Congress last week that would lay the ground rules for distribution of online music. It's enough to make RIAA president Hilary Rosen run for the sprinkler. First, the DOJ action. According to the Journal, the government has begun a preliminary antitrust investigation of Pressplay and MusicNet that will also look into the labels' copyright rules and licensing practices. The move isn't entirely unexpected; the ven- tures have been under a similar investigation in Europe since June. But that doesn't mean the companies are happy about it. An unnamed record-biz source whimpered to the San Jose Mercury News, "For the past five years, this industry has been endlessly investigated by the government. They find nothing. And it costs us a fortune." According to the Merc, investigators are particularly intrigued by MusicNet's practice of working with giant online distributors such as AOL, to the exclusion of the little guys. Never fear, said a lawyer who talked to the Journal, lots of joint ventures between competitors have been investigated by the DOJ and allowed to live. In what seems a breach of online music reporting etiquette, Rosen wasn't quoted in either story. But the almost-ubiquitous Rosen did show up in coverage of the Music Online Competition Act (MOCA), which she called "essentially a solution - a very bad solution - in search of a problem," according to ZDNet. That's not exactly what Reps. Chris Cannon and Rick Boucher had in mind, though Cannon did tell Reuters, "This bill has something for everyone, and it also has a provision that will give various members of the music industry heartburn." In essence, MOCA would update copyright law so that independent online music distributors would get the same terms from record labels as the big guys. For exhaustive details on the bill, see Clint Boulton's InternetNews piece. And, really, take a few days off, would you? - Michaela Cavallaro Online Music Bill Takes Aim at Big Labels http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28463,00.html U.S. Probes Online-Music Ventures For Possible 'Distribution Duopoly' http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB99705423498635089.htm (Paid subscription required.) Web music services face antitrust investigation http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/svfront/music0804001.htm New bill aims to smooth music downloads http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5095196,00.html Music May Yet Stream From Web http://www.wired.com/news/mp3/0,1285,45813,00.html Measure Seeks to Level Online Music Licensing Field http://www.washtech.com/news/media/11653-1.html Rewriting music copyright laws (Reuters) http://www.msnbc.com/news/609263.asp Congressmen Call for Copyright Law Changes http://www.internetnews.com/streaming-news/article/0,,8161_859791,00.html Online Music Competition Act Introduced In House http://www.sonicnet.com/news/story.jhtml?id=1445972
