"...Several U.S. congressmen have introduced new legislation that would legalize the services for which MP3.com faces potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in copyright damages. Dubbed the "Music Owners' Listening Rights Act of 2000," the bill would give companies the right to copy CDs, store them online, and stream the songs individually to listeners who could prove they already owned a copy of the CD.

"Our legislation will remove legacy copyright restrictions, which were written for a different era and that threaten to strangle the technology in its infancy." Boucher said in a floor statement introducing the bill yesterday. The legislation comes partly at the behest of MP3.com, which has been circulating proposed legislation for some time.

The legislation has almost no chance of being acted on this year. Congress is scheduled to adjourn Oct. 6, and any action taken after that date will be limited to spending authorizations for the federal government..."