The new chairman and CEO at the Recording Industries Assocation of America is Mitch Bainwol, who once was chief of staff for Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader. He’ll replace Hilary Rosen.
Washington remains a well-bought place via campaign contributions and overpaid celebrity lobbyists, but a little hope comes from a recent column in the Post, one whose message Baiwol and the rest might want to consider: When Money Talks Too Loudly.
Actually I’m thinking in the long run. More and more members of the MP3 generation are reaching voting age, and many will want to swap movies, not just recordings. The broadband or compression technology will eventually be there to accommodate them. So what happens when Hollywood want to turn them into criminals? Future pols just might not be as helpful. Even today, pols are not absolutely predictable. As Post columnist Ann Applebaum writes in a different context about lobbyists:
A fine idea, hiring prominent people, but it’s possible to overdo it. Congressional backbenchers rarely have the chance to portray themselves as crusading heroes, impoverished Davids fighting wealthy Goliaths. Attacking lobbyists–or their fancy, formerly important political friends–allows them to do it. So beware, influence buyers, of the unpredictable impact of money in Washington–where it really is possible to spend too much.
Bottom line? Hollywood–and, yes, the e-book industry, too–should go for durable business models that allow for both easy file swapping and fair compensation for creators. Under TeleRead this could be possible through swap fees (paid by either consumers or a national digital library fund). Content-providers wouldn’t make as much money off individual units, but would do just fine from increased volume. Of course, given Washington’s current penchant for favoring money over logic, the “send ’em to jail” school may well prevail for the moment–at the expense of the industries it is supposed to protect over the long run.
