Congressional Internet Caucus and ‘fractally complex’ music licensing
Speaking at a July 17 discussion hosted by the Congressional Internet Caucus on music streaming and Congress’ role in the world of music licensing, caucus Advisory Committee Executive Director Tim Lordan cited R Street Innovation Policy Director Mike Godwin’s characterization of the market as “fractally complex.”
It’s entirely possible that you could take a four-credit course, at Georgetown or at GW and — the entire semester — maybe not really, really understand this entire marketplace. You can, if you’re an economics major, you might want to do your PhD thesis on the rate-setting aspect of it alone, and you probably still wouldn’t even understand fully this entire complex space. Mike Godwin from the R Street Institute wrote a piece and tried to break down the music rates and said it’s ‘fractally complex,’ and I think that’s a really good description. We are not going to get anywhere near that complexity. We’re going to try to keep it high level.