House likes 'copyright czar' idea

Approves new PRO-IP legislation

By Brooks Boliek
WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would create "a copyright czar" in the White House and streamline law enforcement efforts to catch intellectual property pirates won approval by the full House on Thursday.

The PRO-IP bill is a priority for the Hollywood studios, record labels, other copyright industries and the manufacturing sector. American industries have been hit hard by piracy, and hope that consolidating the government's various anti-piracy programs will ease the problem.

"Given the difficult economic times we face, the PRO-IP Act is welcome by both the business and labor communities because it can improve our nation's economic outlook," MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman said. "I hope the Senate will move quickly to pass similar legislation."

The Senate is expected to move a companion bill, but time is becoming the enemy of any legislative effort. Even bills with broad backing face a time crunch in a presidential election year when lawmakers have to defend their own electoral chances.

House likes 'copyright czar' idea

Approves new PRO-IP legislation

By Brooks Boliek
WASHINGTON -- Legislation that would create "a copyright czar" in the White House and streamline law enforcement efforts to catch intellectual property pirates won approval by the full House on Thursday.

The PRO-IP bill is a priority for the Hollywood studios, record labels, other copyright industries and the manufacturing sector. American industries have been hit hard by piracy, and hope that consolidating the government's various anti-piracy programs will ease the problem.

"Given the difficult economic times we face, the PRO-IP Act is welcome by both the business and labor communities because it can improve our nation's economic outlook," MPAA president and CEO Dan Glickman said. "I hope the Senate will move quickly to pass similar legislation."

The Senate is expected to move a companion bill, but time is becoming the enemy of any legislative effort. Even bills with broad backing face a time crunch in a presidential election year when lawmakers have to defend their own electoral chances.

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DENVER -- New figures from NPD Group suggest that the Amazon DRM-free digital music service is doing more to grow the overall digital music market as opposed to simply stealing customers from iTunes.

The research group says only 10% of Amazon customers had previously bought music from Apple's iTunes service. While many tagged the Amazon service as an "iTunes killer" when it first launched, the music industry's hope all along was never to cannibalize iTunes sales but rather encourage new digital buyers. NPD's data suggest exactly that is happening.

"The fact that Amazon's early growth does not appear to be at the expense of Apple iTunes is a healthy indication that the digital music customer pool can expand into new consumer groups who have not yet joined the iTunes community," said NPD analyst Russ Crupnick in a statement.

NPD says Amazon is now second only to iTunes in the a la carte digital download category (for those keeping score). The company did not disclose how many users Amazon has attracted in total, however it did say iTunes volume is 10 times that of Amazon.

Some interesting demographic breakdown has emerged between the two services as well. NPD says 84% of Amazon customers are male, compared to 44% of iTunes, but only 3% of Amazon customers were teens, compared to iTunes' 18% (the latter attributed primarily to the popularity of iTunes gift cards.)

NPD says Amazon's growth is likely more due to existing Amazon customers adopting the new service rather than due its lower pricing or DRM-free policies.

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