An interview with Kazaa's D.C. lobbyist

CNet is running an interview with Philip Corwin, Kazaa's/Sharman's sole lobbyist in D.C. That has to be a rough job. In the past Corwin has been a lobbyist American Bankers Association, the Commercial Finance Association and the Independent Bankers Association of America, and now he's a partner at the Butera & Andrews lobbying firm...so I'm guessing his services don't come cheap.

Here's part of the interview concerning the Induce Act, you can go get the rest about halfway down the page here - CNet: Fighting for file-swapping on Capitol Hill:

Why do you think the Induce Act died in Congress this year, even though it had the support of the MPAA and RIAA?

Neither Sharman Networks nor any of the other peer-to-peer companies were invited to participate in those negotiations. We were just labeled as bad actors, while other people talked about the method and timing of our execution.

Do you think the entertainment industry overreached by asking for too much?Y

es. Particularly the way they did it. It became known that the RIAA and MPAA had been working with Senate staff on that language for over a year. Then suddenly this was put on the table, and the other side is told: "You have two months to reach a deal."

I can't think of any precedent for parties in a legal case coming to Congress and saying, "We're losing the case under current law. Can you change the law so we can win?" I think it's very unseemly. (Ed. note: The Induce Act was designed in part to overturn court decisions saying that the Grokster and Morpheus file-swapping networks were legal to operate.)

Actually, I think this happens all the time that industry groups ask Congress to change laws in order to benefit them. It's called...uh...LOBBYING.

By the way, Kazaa/Sharman just began their defense in a civil trial brought by the RIAA (and others) in Australia. Here are some articles on that - here and here. If they lose the judgment would sink them, that is if the judgment is enforceable in the small corporate shelter island of Vanuatu, where Kazaa is located (my guess is that it isn't).