During a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee this week, Chairman Orrin G. Hatch made a suprisingly direct ultimatum to the recording industry…Facing the whole sorry cast of the music-copyright wars, Senator Hatch said that if the record business continued to hurl lawsuits at the e-music industry, he would seek the use of law to force the music labels and publishers to make their content available over the net for a standard fee.Hatch went so far as to suggest that Congress might even offer its own comprehensive definition of ‘fair use’ - the principle governing under what conditions you’re allowed to copy music you have bought - to smooth the passage toward paid digital music. Such an action would, of course, have far reaching implications, and as the principal architect of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), Hatch is arguably well qualified to predict the government line on such matters. As well as being a Senator, Hatch has also scaled the top ten of the Christian charts with his own music. He said that the DMCA had been intended to create a ‘stable, predictable legal environment’ which would boost the availability of intellectual property on the Internet. This had sadly failed for music, he said. Instead of licensing their music to new e-businesses labels have been keeping it locked up in their vaults, cutting deals only to entities they control. Hatch threatened that this policy of cross-licensing only among major-label related entities might ‘raise some competition concerns that this committee would have to consider’. That spells ‘antitrust enquiry’ in pretty big letters.  Following Hatch, the committee’s ranking minority member went on to argue that the 20 million users currently claimed by Napster  translated into a formidable political power. ‘If 20 million Napster users get cut off,’ he warned, ‘even those senators who are not sure what that large screen on the desks in their office is are going to start hearing from those people.’ Without rapid movement to give Napster a license, he said, ‘you’ll feel pressure from Congress to create statutory licenses, and pressure to create a single fee to pay all concerned, and I’m not sure everybody will be happy with that.’‘At what point should Congress consider legislative action to ensure that there is access to music at a reasonable price with the artist compensated?’ Hatch asked at the end of the session. ‘I’m willing to consider compulsory license and a clarification of fair use.‘RIAA and Sony have responded rapidly, sayting that the market, not the courts, would work out what was needed in the world of e-commerce. A sensible enough proposition if you’re in the recording industry, but it doesn’t look like Congress is in agreement - ‘fair and reasonable licensing needs to take place,’ Hatch flatly told the industry as he closed the hearing. ‘We’ll be watching closely.’ It’s fighting talk, this, and no mistake.