As recently as 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals of two people owing almost a combined $1 million for allegedly downloading and sharing copyrighted music. The cases of Jammie Thomas-Rasset and Joel Tenenbaum were vestiges of a high-profile battle between the record industry and the internet that dated back to Metallica's crushing 2000 lawsuit against online music-sharing O.G. Napster. In the court of public opinion, such debates tended to pit an aged, clueless industry against internet-connected music lovers tired of having to buy an $18 CD to hear that one kinda decent Fastball song.

Much has changed. What the narrative of money-hungry corporations versus innocent fans inevitably leaves out is the existence of a not entirely disinterested third party: the technology industry. Companies such as Google, founded a year before Napster in 1998, have benefited society in countless ways—and profited handsomely from it. At the same time, their music-loving users have blogged the occasional Rapidshare link, or (gasp!) uploaded copyrighted songs to YouTube. The primary law meant to establish a necessary balance between the competing interests of copyright owners and Silicon Valley is 1998's Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. I'll pause here to let the similarly named Village People jam get stuck in your head.

Last week, hundreds of artists, songwriters, and others in the music business signed letters calling on Washington to change parts of the DMCA. Including current acts ranging from Arcade Fire and Neko Case to Katy Perry and Mark Ronson as well as icons like Pete Townshend and Bootsy Collins, this eclectic assemblage spoke as one about the need to revamp the law's "safe harbor" provision. What the safe harbor basically does is shield digital services from copyright infringement liability for content posted by their users, so long as there's a process in place to take down the content at the copyright owner's request. The music business has for years contended that the safe harbor provision puts an unfairly heavy burden on artists. But now these industry heavyweights are ramping up the fight, essentially saying that the safe harbor provisions—DMCA Section 512, to get technical—are "outdated" and "don't work."

The record companies have a point. American music industry revenues have stayed mostly flat since 2010 and overall have fallen about 50 percent since the DMCA became law, according to the RIAA, the trade group representing the major labels. Free streaming via sites like YouTube has grown faster than the revenues generated from it, which shockingly trailed vinyl sales last year, the RIAA said. "The growth and support of technology companies should not be at the expense of artists and songwriters," reads one letter signed by a range of music A-listers. As signees Fifth Harmony might put it, baby, they're worth it.

But of course, Silicon Valley isn't taking these missives lying down. The Computer & Communications Industry Association, another trade group, told Bloomberg that the music industry can't back its claims that the safe harbor is sucking up revenues. The Internet Association, a trade group whose members include Facebook and Google, also praised Section 512, notes The Hollywood Reporter. "These smart laws allow people to post content that they have created on platforms—such as videos, reviews, pictures, and text," the association wrote. "In essence, this is what makes the internet great."

But the internet is a vastly different place than it was when DMCA became law in 1998. The U.S. Copyright Office, which prompted all these letters with a request for public comment on Section 512, noted that back then less than 5 percent of the world's population was online. Websites were static, clunky dial-up connections were standard, and social networks, let alone smartphones, were still a long ways off. As for search engines, Google dates to the same year as this law, which was signed by President Bill Clinton. "The DMCA has now become a dysfunctional relic, not suited to the realities of the 21st century," reads a 97-page brief signed by 18 separate music organizations, including not only the RIAA but also A2IM, a trade group that represents indie labels.