Arts+Labs Launches With Big-Time Backing
Here's a quick follow-up to Tuesday night's post about the launch of a new effort to spur the creation of innovative Internet content and distribute in safe, reliable ways. The clumsily titled campaign, Arts+Labs, was unveiled at a Wednesday briefing in New York City and its founding members are a who's who of high-tech and content industry powerhouses -- AT&T, Viacom, NBC Universal, Cisco, Microsoft and the Songwriters Guild of America.
Arts+Labs is co-chaired by Mike McCurry, former White House press secretary to President Bill Clinton and Mark McKinnon, former media adviser to the campaigns of President Bush and current GOP presidential nominee John McCain. SGA President Rick Carnes and Chuck Sims of the law firm Proskauer Rose also have agreed to join Arts+Labs as the first members of its advisory board.
"Quality content drives the Internet and that distribution of easily accessible, affordable content in the Internet age requires new business models," McKinnon said in a press release, noting that consumers should know where to get safe and legal online content while protecting artists' and innovators' rights. McCurry said consumers want greater opportunities to access content "with confidence that they are safe from viruses, hackers, malware, illegal file trafficking and other net pollution."
After the launch, the Arts+Labs team kicked off a three-city media tour with stops in New York, Nashville and Los Angeles. Wait a second. What about Washington? The seat of our nation's government and the place where intellectual property protection and anti-piracy is considered a very hot topic. Maybe the second leg of the road trip will hit D.C. and when it does, I hope they bring snacks. The Washington press corps appreciates snacks.
Update: Public Knowledge President Gigi Sohn characterized the effort as the "latest in a string of big-money front groups is nothing more than the most concentrated attack on the free and open Internet we have seen to date." "Combining the power and influence of AT&T and the entertainment industry means only that both are going to wage an all-out war for the right to filter every bit of data anyone sends across the Internet," she said.
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