While most of the music world was focused on the Napster ruling, legislators and digital music combatants gathered in Washington to discuss governmental technology policy. As part of a plan to help develop legislation that protects copyrights while enabling the growth of digital music, Techissues.net and Comdex hosted Monday's discussion, which saw music sellers trying to educate Congress on technology issues. Topics covered included the capabilities of broadband and Internet taxation. The event brought together several companies that have faced off against each other during the last year. The RIAA and DiMA began a battle over digital royalty rates for webcasters in April after two years of failed negotiations around the issue.
Musicians derive much of their income royalties from the sales of physical copies, such as CDs.
But interactive services such as webcasts are not considered physical copies and don't require payments to artists. For artists to continue to survive in the music space in ten years when music is streamed to a car, PC, or PDA, that needs to be viewed as performance. Right now, the system isn't set up to pay artists based on that model. Noticeably absent was a presence from Napster. Former Senate Judiciary Committee Legal Advisor Manus Cooney, who now works for Napster, decided not to attend after the Circuit Court announced it would rule on the Napster injunction.