Last week I wrote an article about SoundExchange, the body that is responsible for pushing the recent webcaster royalty hikes through Congress. For those that don’t recall, internet radio stations recently had the royalties that they must pay in order to operate increased substantially. Many people are quite passionate about this issue, including many at the organization Digital Freedom.

Recently, I had a conversation with Vijay Raghavan of the Digital Freedom campaign and he gave me an insiders look at how this battle is playing out.

Digital Freedom

Thanks for talking to me Vijay. Tell me a little about Digital Freedom. What do you stand for, and how do you differ from other organizations like the EFF?

The Digital Freedom Campaign is a broad-based coalition of public interest groups, innovators, consumers and artists with often varying viewpoints. Our partners include Public Knowledge, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Media Access Project, Outbound Music and the Consumer Electronics Association, to name a few.

Our goal is to ensure that consumer and innovator rights are protected by our government, while striking a balance between the rights of copyright owners and the rights of consumers in the digital age.

To achieve this goal we seek to raise public awareness about the debate over “digital rights” issues in order to pressure Congress to create reasonable and up-to-date policy that encourages innovation while respecting the rights of both copyright owners and consumers.

We differ from organizations like EFF because we like to think of ourselves as an umbrella under which these organizations can gather to discuss these issues and speak towards Congress and the public with a unified voice. By having partners such as EFF, Public Knowledge and other public interest groups, partnered with commercial organizations such as the Consumer Electronics Association we are better able to illustrate the breadth of support that exists for the protection of consumer and innovator rights in the digital age.

SoundExchange

What do you believe is the reason for SoundExchange’s recent efforts to negotiate with webcasters after pushing so hard to pass new royalty amendments?


While we cannot speculate on the reasoning behind SoundExchange’s actions, it seems that the pressure placed on them from Congress (due to the public outcry over the threat posed to the Internet radio industry from these new royalty rates) has forced the organization to try and find a mutually acceptable solution with webcasters that ensures the long-term viability of the Internet radio industry.

Piracy

What do you feel is the best way for the government or private organizations to deal with the problem of piracy? Is their current stance a sustainable one?

The Digital Freedom Campaign believes the best way to deal with the piracy problem is for organizations to adapt their business models to make it easier and better for consumers to buy rather than steal. Piracy is definitely an issue and appropriate safeguards should be taken by content producers to protect their copyrights, but not at the expense of consumer rights.

The hostile stance that the content industry has taken to new technologies and consumer rights in the digital age is not sustainable, in our opinion. Attempting to thwart new technologies through legislation and litigation, rather than adapt their business models to take advantage of the opportunities provided by these technologies, will ultimately prove to be a futile effort.

The Stream-ripping “Problem”

If you could offer a suggestion to SoundExchange for how they should tackle the issue of stream-ripping what would it be? Is there a middle ground that can be reached between webcaster freedom and protecting the rights of copyright holders?

First, the issue of stream-ripping is non-existent, by the RIAA’s own admission. Second, using this “problem” as a weapon in completely unrelated negotiations is disingenuous. Last, no evidence whatsoever has been offered that stream ripping is a threat to the protection of the rights of copyright holders, and therefore in our opinion there is currently no middle ground to reach on this issue.

Big Brother Is Watching

Tell us a little bit more about the “Big Brother Amendment,” how it relates to the RIAA and your organizations stance.

The amendment introduced by Senator Reid to the Higher Education Reauthorization Act would force universities to adopt a policy and reporting procedure relating to “illegal downloading and distribution of copyrighted material.” It would also require the Secretary of Education to annually report to Congress which 25 universities have received the most infringement notices from copyright owners.

This relates to the RIAA because of their recent copyright infringement lawsuit offensive on college students across the country. They are apparently asking the government and universities to do their work for them. We can all agree that piracy is wrong. However, alienating consumers and forcing the use of already scarce government and university resources is an effective method to achieve their goals.

No one supports illegal downloading or file sharing, but the Digital Freedom Campaign and its members believe that Universities have more urgent things to do with their scarce budgets than collect information on their students for the government and for the RIAA. Academic resources would be better spent educating students rather than spying on them at the behest of large corporations.

Web 2.0 Roundup

As more information becomes available over the internet, the rights of consumers and the rights of copyright holders will continue to clash. We must remember that many of the companies that currently fight for stronger copyright protection are working in industries that have remained fundamentally unchanged for 50 years.

These problems will only continue to become more pronounced as organizations like Digital Freedom gain the resources they need to stand up against these established industries. Regardless of which side of this issue you stand, it’s quite clear that the winner of this battle will determine how we all consume media now and into the future.

I would be more than happy to hear from someone at SoundExchange, my mailbox is always open.

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