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Correspondence, Love Letters and
Advice Letter from Hilary Rosen Don Henely's diatribe against the Recording Industry Association of America contained some interesting reading but not enough facts. I have known and respected Don for a long time, but his recent article was an unfair attack on an organization that has done extremely valuable work on behalf of artists and record companies over the years. Regarding the current debate in California over new legislation that the RAC proposes, the RIAA and its member companies want to and have already started to work with the RAC to find an acceptable policy compromise. The RAC proposed a law to allow artists to walk away from a contract after seven years, even if advances have been paid for albums that have yet to be delivered. You and I don't get paid in advance for our work and then expect to be able to walk away. Why should recording artists? And this issue does only affect the wealthiest artists, not the young guy on the street trying to make it in the music business. For every extra $10 million that record companies have to pay superstars who gain negotiating leverage through the legislature, that is ten new artists a record label can't give a chance to. Henley brings up some past activities of the RIAA. A few facts are in order: It was Congress, not the RIAA, that sought to clarify the "work made for hire" rule for sound recordings at the suggestion of the US Copyright Office (and put it in a bill that was promoted by Don Henley--otherwise the issue never would have come up). When the RIAA realized how many people thought this legislative correction was a substantive policy change that needed more debate--including my friend Sheryl Crow--I led the charge to find a productive neutral solution. And we did. He takes a story from a foe of protection as fact to denigrate the RIAA's efforts to find productive solutions to stealing music on the Internet, a cause Henley says he cares about. The RIAA did not try and "sneak" anything into the anti-terrorism bill. We were responding to a very real problem, again at the request of the appropriate committee in Congress, to try and make sure that the new computer-crimes legislation did not impede the very online copyright enforcement that artists say they support. I have always supported the formation of a recording artists group and have been very encouraging of the RAC. But attacks won't get any artists clower to their goals, and I know it wno't help the music community or its fans. Don Henley Replies: Hilary Rosen's response to my article, which was based on documented fact, is yet another example of RIAA propaganda. While seeming to offer an olive branch, Rosen makes blatently disingenuous claims, such as that the RIAA and its member companies "have already started to work with the RAC to find an acceptable policy compromise." Nothing of the sort has occurred, nor will it occur until Rosen stops speaking out of both sides of her mouth. Her claim that artists want to "walk away from a contract after seven years, even if advances have been paid for albums that have yet to be delivered" is ridiculous. |