NARM Issues Position Paper On Music E-Commerce

By Perry Sun, Widescreen Review

19-May-00

Consumers, and more notably, music retailers have not been justly regarded as players in the emerging practices and standards for electronic commerce and delivery of music. Citing this as a concern, the National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) has released a position paper to express the issues facing consumer and retailers in the digital world of music distribution.Regarding the emergence of new trends with the Internet and the business of music selling, along with the interests of the consumer, the paper states that the ""increasing phenomena of treating individualized consumer data as a commodity all potentially pose a serious threat to these consumer rights and expectations and, consequently, may threaten to seriously erode consumer confidence in electronic commerce and consumer satisfaction with the retail music buying experience.""NARM stated its support for anti-piracy measures but also expressed the need ""to avoid any agreements or standards that go beyond the prevention and detection of copyright infringement,or the identification of the sound recording (including its authors and copyright owners).""Furthermore, the paper underscored the rights of a consumer to anonymity, privacy and confidentiality when information pertinent to the purchase of electronic music is divulged to a merchant. Also, consumers should be able to use their legally acquired recordings in the same legitimate manner as always, such as for personal use, gifts or casual entertainment for friends.Finally, NARM issued a series of strong statements urging the use of digital rights management technology only for the management of intellectual property rights, and not to administrate ""a complex variety of newërightsí created by technology rather than any bargained for agreement with the consumer - rights which are antagonistic to the consumer and to copyright law.""For the complete text of the position paper, see the May 2000 issue of ""Sounding Board,"" NARMís newsletter, available at http://www.narm.com/news/sb/2000/0500/0500toc.htm.

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