By Ben Marchi
One of the underlying lessons of the defeat of Eric Cantor at the hands of his constituents was the perception, or as many believe the reality, that Cantor’s neck-deep relationships with Washington lobbyists and cronies came at the expense of those who lived in his district. Often it would appear that the only people he would say “no” to where those he purported to represent. Meanwhile an army of hired guns from K Street to Wall Street always appeared closest to the former Majority Leader as he traveled to Hollywood and New York for fundraisers.
Certainly, Cantor was not alone in playing footsy with those who bring big PAC checks to the table. His meteoric climb up the House leadership ladder was fueled with money from corporate interests. Even though Mr. Cantor is fading away, many of those corporate sharks will just turn their focus elsewhere to find a new pool to swim in.
Keen observers will be watching an upcoming hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, chaired by Virginia’s Bob Goodlatte, for the black-shoe corporate types to fill the room. It will be the second of a series of hearings called by the Chairman to address the arcane and confusing issues of music licensing and copyright. While most Americans can go about their day without thinking of the topic, there is an army lobbyists whose income depends solely on what Congress does on these issues and if you work in the record industry or are one of the three major music-publishing entities that functionally controls 100 percent of all the music in America, the House Judiciary Committee has traditionally been ground zero for your profit center.
The record industry is trapped in a time warp as their business model is threatened by technology advances — almost all of which they opposed. Whether it was the ability to record on a personal cassette tape or the VCR or streaming music on the Internet today, the “content industry” sees progress as an assault on their ability to control the marketplace.
That’s why they are pushing a series of bills to change copyright law to ensure Congress creates new streams of income to the industry. Whether it is the effort to tax radio stations to pay performers a new fee every time their songs are played on the radio or whether Congress will re-adjust the formula that courts use to deal with royalty rates, the industry continues to turn to government to pad their bottom line and protect their outdated business model.
As Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Goodlatte can decide whether the record companies win or whether consumers win. If he allows radio stations to be taxed on the music they play, they will play less music. If he allows the record industry to jam a measure through to raise royalty rates, it could kill streaming music. Higher fees, of course, mean higher costs — costs that are always borne on the consumer.
It will be interesting to watch whether the lessons of the Cantor defeat will change the members of the Committee as they address this convoluted issue. Will they ask the right questions of the record industry or will it be business as usual?
It has been a long time since Congress held the record industry’s feet to the fire. Why should they have the power to raise rates through government established price-fixing formulas? Why do they always attack technological advances that benefit consumers? Why should consumers pay more to hear the music they love?
Those are some of the questions I would love to hear at this hearing. If they are asked, it will be clear that someone read the memo on why Mr. Cantor went down to such an ignoble defeat.
Ben Marchi is the former Virginia state director of Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
