Saturday, July 19, 2003

Congressman takes the money Andrew Orlowski: Congressman pocketed $18,000 for RIAA 'lobbying trip'. The congressman is James Sensenbrenner, who brokered the compromise that put an end to nearly all news about Internet radio, growth of which has been effectively throttled ever since. Thanks to Doc Searls. for picking this up. I sent an email to the congressman, and copied local newspaper editors: Dear Congressman Sensenbrenner: I was very disappointed to read this article today regarding your recent $18K Asian trip, paid for by the RIAA. I commended you for stepping into the internet streaming issue recently - however, now that I see the RIAA's hand in the matter, I'm quite disappointed. Our economy is built on competition, including the creative destruction of industries as new methods and technologies wipe away the old. The RIAA, in general, is resisting any sort of change. Do you advocate the elimination of automated milking systems to protect the manual dairy farmer process? Interestingly, it is possible to legally sell and use music online, without lots of new laws - I urge you to support competition in this space, rather than big business as usual. The just introduced berman/conyers bill that makes uploading a single file to a p2p network a felony simply piles on (both receive significant sums from their hollywood benefactors). The irony in all of this is that Wisconsin has many challenges, including a declining manufacturing base, a difficult startup environment and deficits. I can't imagine that RIAA issues are even on the radar screen of any Wisconsin resident. Best wishes, Jim 2:05:11 PM