May 2nd was Technology and Intellectual Property Policy Day – a conference sponsored by the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) and the American Constitution Society (ACS). Most of the day centered on a single question, posed by Lisa Brown of ACS as she kicked off the event: “What happens when a century old body of law like copyright is applied to new technology?” 

Simply put, all hell breaks loose.  The Internet is wrecking havoc with traditional understanding of how music can be distributed, and therefore how it can be legislated.  And this isn’t just about the few evil, evil folk who get their music from less-than-legal sources.  Downloading took a back seat to bigger challenges that face legitimate outlets for music – both terrestrial and digital.   

Most of these challenges stem from the nature of the way that copyright interacts with music.  There are a number of different royalty structures in place for music – those to the songwriter, to the artist, to the record company.  Some of them only apply when you’re dealing with an actual copy of the music – a CD or record or whatever. Some of them apply to the broadcast of the music.   

But there are catches.  First of all, terrestrial radio has for a long time been exempt from paying some of these royalties.  And these days, while radio likely has a URL instead of a number on the dial, figuring out where the webcasters and satellite fit into the big picture is causing some problems.  With the new set of fees just handed down from the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB), the rates that non-terrestrial broadcasters were paying are going way up retroactive to January 1, 2006, and with no change for normal everyday broadcasters. 

Since this news was handed down just days before the conference, it colored most of the discussions.  But the panels and speakers covered a wide variety of issues beyond broadcasting.  These included Net Neutrality and intellectual property and the web, as well as the roles of copyright and consumer electronics in the world of music and music policy.  The panel discussions alternated with keynotes from Congressman Mike Doyle, Gary Shapiro of the consumer Electronics Association, Jenny Toomey on the FMC’s initiative Rock the Net, and David Carson of the US copyright office, and gave attendees an incredibly diversity of points and opinions, and enough information to make one’s head explode.

Panel One - Radio Waves

In a panel on broadcasting, the disparity between terrestrial radio, satellite, and web broadcasting was obviously the centerpiece of the discussion.  It was one of the more diverse panels during the day – Mike Holden topped the billing with the title of “musician”, while he was flanked by Joe Kennedy of Pandora, Eric Logan from XM, Patricia Polach as the lawyerly presence, Dick Huey from Toolshed digital media marketing, and John Simpson from SoundExchange.  With this group, the moderator was ready to rumble.