Bill Would Legitimize MyMP3.com-Style Services

A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers earlier this week
introduced legislation that would make it expressly legal for Internet
users
to hear and electronically store music purchased legally.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., led a bipartisan quartet of House members
Monday in introducing the Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000,
which amends copyright law to effectively legalize certain transmission of
music over the Internet. The legislation appears to be a direct response
to the mounting debate over digital music spurred by the ongoing legal
battles surrounding MP3.com's personalized music service, MyMP3.com.

The Boucher bill states that if a customer has purchased a piece of music,
"the transmission of a personal interactive performance of a sound
recording,
and of any non-dramatic musical works embodied therein, is not an
infringement of copyright."

It continues, "Simply stated, a consumer who lawfully owns a work of
music,
such as a CD, will be able to store it on the Internet and then downstream
it for
personal use at a time and place of his choosing," Boucher said in a floor
statement Monday to introduce the legislation.

The move comes several weeks after a potentially massive judgment
was levied against MP3.com for operating a service very much like the
one Boucher described. The site's personalized MyMP3.com service was
designed to allow listeners to access online versions of CDs they had
already purchased, but New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff ruled that
by failing to license the recordings before redistributing them online,
MyMP3.com was guilty of violating Universal Music Group
copyrights.

MP3.com was ordered to pay $25,000 per CD after Rakoff ruled
the company's personalized MyMP3.com site "willfully infringed"
on Universal's copyrights.

By Rakoff's own estimate, based on MP3.com's claim that only
4,700 Universal Music CDs were copied for use on the site, the fine
would cost MP3.com about $118 million. But if more copyrighted CDs
turn out to be involved prior to the penalty phase of the trial - and
some indications hint that as many as 10,000 CDs could be involved -
the Internet company launched by the bright, brash young CEO Michael
Robertson could end up owing $250 million in penalties.

A copy of the Boucher bill is available online at
http://www.house.gov/boucher/docs/molra-leg.htm.