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suit. The amicus brief focused on just one of the many issues in the case, asking the judge not to assume that the labels owned the master recordings in perpetuity under a disputed doctrine called work-for-hire. Under the work-for-hire interpretation espoused by the labels, the companies didn't need a specific contractual clause from the bands signing away the rights to the masters. And the companies said the bands had no right to terminate the contracts and get those rights back. The Napster court was one of the places where that argument was being aired.

A bigger and more immediate target for the Recording Artists Coalition was a 1987 amendment to a California law that had ended the old Hollywood studio system, which bound underpaid stars to movie companies for life. The original law said that performers could end their contracts after seven years and become free agents. Intense lobbying by the record industry won the later amendment, which partially exempted musicians. Because of that exemption, record companies could require seven albums in seven years but make that output virtually impossible to fulfill in time because of touring, videos, and other obligations. Then the labels could hold out the threat of a lawsuit to keep more albums coming well after the seven years were up. Now, state lawmakers in Sacramento were treated to visits by a new breed of lobbyist, in the persons of Courtney Love, Beck, and Carole King.

The more the bands bashed the record industry, the more Napster users felt as though they were justified in ripping off the labels, and the less inclined members of Congress were to come to the record industry's aid. In testimony before a Senate committee in Washington, former Eagle Henley was one of the few voices of moderation in the great Napster fight. He said that the Recording Artists Coalition supported the labels' copyright suit, but he complained that the musicians were being left out of the negotiations and most of the discussions about new laws. Forced digital licensing—with the artists sharing in the royalties—should be considered as a last resort, he said. Napster and its successors “flourished because the record industry has failed to be forward-thinking and has made it extremely difficult for legitimate companies to license the rights,” Henley said. “The record industry fiddled on the sidelines while the digital revolution went on without them.”

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