The NII may be the holy grail for lovers of pre-recorded music, but without change in the copyright law it would also be a death knell to our industry … A transmitter would simply be able to procure one copy of a copyrighted work, and then transmit it to thousands of users at the touch of a button. One can hardly imagine a more bleak future for our company.
Predictor: Kenswil, Lawrence
Prediction, in context:In a 1993 article for Billboard, the music industry magazine, Catherine Applefeld reports on a National Information Infrastructure task force hearing Nov. 18 in Crystal City, Nevada, at which Lawrence Kenswil, vice president for business and legal affairs at MCA Music Entertainment Group, appeared. Applefeld writes: ”[Kenswil] indicated that unless record companies and artist received compensation for the use of their works, labels such as MCA would see little reason to invest in producing sound recordings. ‘The NII may be the holy grail for lovers of pre-recorded music, but without change in the copyright law it would also be a death knell to our industry,’ he said. ‘A transmitter would simply be able to procure one copy of a copyrighted work, and then transmit it to thousands of users at the touch of a button. One can hardly imagine a more bleak future for our company.'”
Date of prediction: November 18, 1993
Topic of prediction: Controversial Issues
Subtopic: Copyright/Intellectual Property/Plagiarism
Name of publication: Billboard
Title, headline, chapter name: Trade Wants C’Right Assurances As Info Highway is Paved
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
Volume 105, Issue 49, Page 10
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney