Music coalition warns that it better change new requirement that an objector to a proposed gTLD must show “likelihood of material detriment” to the “broader Internet community”or else it will “escalate” the confrontation. Is worried that a person could “hijack a music themed gTLD to enable widescale copyright infringement” of its works.
The music industry has never met a new form of technology it likes, and ICANN is the latest to feel its wrath over a new top-level domains program.
From printed sheet music to radio, from cassette tapes to digital music, over the years the music industry has warned us about how new inventions will be used to infringe copyrights and their potential for massive job layoffs and declining profits.
Now the RIAA’s Deputy General Counsel, Victoria Sheckler, on behalf of it and a coalition of 15 national and international trade associations representing songwriters, recording artists, music publishers, record labels, and royalty collection societies, has sent a letter to ICANN expressing concern over the creation of any music themed TLDs.
“Our overriding concern is to ensure that any music themed gTLD is used productively and responsibly, and is not a means to facilitate copyright or trademark infringement,” she writes.
ICANN recently raised the requirements for blocking a new TLD application so that objectors must now show a “likelihood of material detriment to the community named by the objector, and the broader Internet community, if the gTLD application is approved.”
The music industry coalition wants it to revert to the prior standard where the objector only had to show harm to his community.
“Under the current proposed standard,” she continues “we fear that we will have no realistic ability to object if a pirate chooses to hijack a music themed gTLD to enable widescale copyright infringement of our works.
In closing the letter, Sheckler makes it clear that that she may “escalate” the situation of ICANN doesn’t adequately satisfy its demands.
“We strongly urge you to take these concerns seriously, and expeditiously implement appropriate changes to the DAG to address these critical concerns. We prefer a practical solution to these issues, and hope to avoid the need to escalate the issue further.”
With this music coalition likely in control of a good majority of the world’s copyrighted music, it’s concern is likely centered around the fact that it believes there are too few legal music sites to necessitate having a TLD of its own, and what it all comes down to in the end, as it has so many times before, is being in total control.
Keep in mind this is the same industry that said it was dying – way back in the 1980s.
Stay tuned.
[Hat Tip]
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
