The BPI nipped across the Thames yesterday to 'give evidence' to an enquiry into all things web-ernet that is currently being undertaken by the House Of Commons Select Committee For Culture, Media & Sport. I suspect that the tricky topic of digital rights management was originally going to dominate this enquiry, but then the House Of Commons All Party Internet Group stole all the headlines on that topic when they reported on their latest enquiry last week, so yesterday's proceedings centred on pretty much anything else to do with music in the digital world.
Starting with that overriding feature of the digital music age - litigation. Or, to be more precise, I suppose, no litigation. That is to say, BPI boss Peter Jamieson told the committee that the recording industry would not be suing anyone who breaks those previously reported rules that say you shouldn't transfer music from CDs you've bought to other devices. As previously reported, technically speaking UK copyright law forbids the transfer of tracks from one device to another, meaning that consumers shouldn't rip music from CDs they have bought onto their PC or portable music device. However, pretty much no one obeys that rule, and it is a feature of copyright law that has come under increasing criticism, from both consumers groups and, yesterday, the BPI.
Jamieson told MPs: "We will not sue you for filling your iPod with music you have bought yourself. Traditionally the recording industry has turned a blind eye to private copying and has used the strength of the law to pursue commercial pirates. We believe that we now need to make a clear and public distinction between copying for your own use and copying for dissemination to third parties and make it unequivocally clear to the consumer that if they copy their CDs for their own private use in order to move the music from format to format we will not pursue them."
Litigation fans, however, can rest assured that there is a new lawsuit on the horizon - this time regarding controversial Russian download platform AllofMP3.com, which was also discussed at yesterday's session. As previously reported, AllofMP3.com sells major label music at incredibly cheap prices, claiming to be a legitimate enterprise approved by licensing bodies within Russia. However, the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry has questioned the service's legitimacy and, as it becomes an increasingly popular source of digital music across Europe, the BPI says it plans to take legal action to try and stop it from operating, in the UK at least.
The BPI's General Counsel, Roz Groome, told the Select Committee: "AllofMP3.com is illegal under UK law and it is illegal to download from it. We are going to sue AllofMP3.com in the UK courts - we are going to seek a judgment not against the users of the site, but against the site itself."
So, what else was discussed in this here Select Committee?
Well, Jamieson again outlined the recording industry's case for having the UK/European recording copyright extended from its current fifty years. He said: "British music is one of Britain's greatest ambassadors, but failure to extend term could turn an export into an import. If we lose the Crown Jewels of British music, little money will flow back to the UK."
Some time was then spent to try and dispel the myth that record labels will cash in big time in the digital age because selling downloads has none of the overheads of selling CDs. Independiente MD Mark Richardson, accompanying the BPI delegation, said: "It is early days for digital music. At this point in time the cost of distribution for downloads is actually higher than for CDs. Regardless of that, however, distribution remains a relatively small part of the investment record companies make in music. All of the key costs for a piece of music remain virtually the same whatever format you distribute it on."
Talk next of the ongoing dispute between the recording and publishing sectors of the music business on that very issue - ie claims by the publishers that a record label's costs are lower in the digital age and, therefore, they, the publishers, should get a bigger cut of recording sales revenue. As previously reported, that dispute is heading for a copyright tribunal in the Autumn, but Jamieson said yesterday that: "I hope there will be a voluntary settlement before the Tribunal date".
On the other growing dispute in the digital music space - the one over interoperability being fought between Apple and more or less everyone else - Jamieson was diplomatic, recognising Apple's considerable and important investment in this space to date. But he added that "it's not particularly healthy for any one company to have such a dominant share" and that "we would advocate that Apple opts for interoperability".
So there you go, all lovely. And now some parting words from the BPI boss: "Music has never been more popular. But it's not time to break out the champagne just yet. The UK recording industry is committed to embracing every opportunity of digital technology in order to ensure the volume that must crucially accompany these new avenues of exploitation."