From Wednesday's Hollywood Reporter
Napster asks Congress for new copyright law
WASHINGTON -- Napster on Tuesday changed the tune it plays for Congress when its top executives called on lawmakers to rewrite copyright law so that record companies would be required to make their product available to online services. The company's call for an online "compulsory license" is a shift from its position in July, when it told the panel that current copyright law was adequate to ensure Napster's survival. Of course, in the interim Napster lost one of the most-watched copyright cases in years when a federal court ruled that the service could be liable for violating copyright law and ordered Napster to cease trading music owned by the five major label groups (HR 2/13). Napster CEO Hank Barry told the committee that without a compulsory license it is far too difficult to gain all of the approvals necessary to operate the service. Lawmakers on the panel expressed doubt that a new online compulsory license would fly. They also heard recording stars Don Henley and Alanis Morissette tell the panel that it was time to include artists in the discussions. "As we sit here, there's a pingpong game going on over our heads about business models when we don't know how our rights are going to be protected," said Henley, co-founder of the Recording Artists Coalition.
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