Congress Examines XM's Song Recording

CONGRESS EXAMINES XM'S SONG RECORDING
[SOURCE: Los Angeles Times, AUTHOR: Jim Puzzanghera]
A House subcommittee Wednesday grappled with the sort of abstraction likely to become more common in the digital age: When is a radio more than a radio? Before the House subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection was a device from XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. that allows subscribers to digitally record as many as 50 hours of songs as they're played over the air. Users can create their own playlists, but the songs are locked in the $400 radio so they can't be burned onto CDs or shared over the Internet. Record labels say they deserve to get paid extra when their songs are captured in the radios. XM disagrees. Enter Congress.
http://www.latimes.com/business/printedition/la-fi-satradio4may04,1,4567...
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