MP3 Wars: Harsh Words in Washington, Sony's Memory Sticks

Computergram International, April 9, 1999

By Rachel Chalmers MP3 is still starting fires. The ninth annual conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy broke down into a squabble on Wednesday April 8 when MP3 supporters, musicians and representatives of record labels could not agree even to disagree about the popular internet audio format.

Friends of MP3 love the technology because it permits high-quality copies of commercial music to be made and exchanged on the net. Foes of the format oppose it for exactly the same reason. They have called MP3's supporters intellectual property pirates, and have sent in the lawyers. Musician Henry Cross told the panel he was "appalled by the music industry's heavy-handed attempt to restrict MP3 technology." Carey Scherman, general counsel of the Recording Industry Association of America, retorted that contrary to popular perception, his employer is not opposed to MP3. "We love the idea of artists having direct access to their customers," said Scherman, "all we want is to have some kind of protection system in place so artists can get paid." MP3 advocates weren't buying that argument: "Carey is not for the artists," observed Michael Robertson, president of MP3.com, "he's for his constituency, which pays his salary." Meanwhile in Tokyo's Blue Note Jazz Club, Sony Corp president Nobuyuki Idei described a Memory Stick Walkman, able to download, store and play large quantities of internet music. That music, however, will have to be made available in an industry-approved format. Sony, whose interests include a record label as well as a hardware business, was a founding member of the RIAA's Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI), an attempt to create copyright- protected alternatives to MP3. Not surprisingly, Sony officials have said they will not sell MP3-based products.