RIAA’s Rosen on student lawsuits
p2p news / p2pnet: Hilary Rosen, the woman who once ran the Big Four Organized Music cartel’s RIAA, says she believes the RIAA lawsuits against students have, “outlived most of their usefulness”. It’s also time for another look at DRM, she says.
Now long gone from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), these days she is, among other things, a contributor to The Huffington Post, which gives her the freedom, “to write about anything”. Rosen says she likes the comments and, “one comment keeps coming back so much from my posts (no matter the subject!) that I thought I’d correct the record.”
She says she’s regularly accuse of suing college students and other “innocents” as chairman [sic] and ceo of the “Recording Indsutry [sic] Assciation [sic] of America.”
BUT, “The lawsuits against individuals initiated by the RIAA was [sic] started after I left,” she declares.
“When I was there, our litigation focus was on those who were bulding [sic] commercial businesses on the backs of the creative community without their agreement or participation.”
In her The Huffington Post post, Rosen goes on, “I don’t honestly know what I would have done about the individual lawsuits had I stayed. I certainly participated in multiple planning and debate sessions about them. There were good arguments on both sides and the staff at the RIAA are thoughtful, good people who work hard to protect their constituency. Thankfully my plan to leave was firmly in place and I didn’t have to make that tough call or take the heat for the one that was made.
“I am sure there are lots of other things that I’ve done that people have opinions about. But most successful executives I know have made controversial decisions and have been second-guessed and scrutinized both favorable and unfavorably. It comes with the priviledge [sic] of the work and that’s ok. I can also assure you that I don’t intend to start using this site as a review of the RIAA or my work there but I certainly can’t stop others from doing so.”
As well as sharing a concern about the usefulness, or otherwise, of the lawsuits, Risen thinks the labels, “need to work harder to implemnt [sic] a strategy that legitimizes more p2p sites and expands the download and subscription pool by working harder with the tech community to get devices and music services to work better together. That is how their business will expand most quickly.
“The iPod is still too small a part of the overall potential of the market and its propietary [sic] DRM just bugs me. Speaking of DRM, it is time to rethink that strategy as well……… At some point, I will write more comprehensively about those years and these issues….then again, maybe not.”
If she’s not too sure about the efficacy of lawsuits against students, what about children (the “innocents” mentioned above?)?
She doesn’t go into detail.
Digg this story.
Also See:
The Huffington Post – For the Record, for What It’s Worth, June 4, 2006
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June 6th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
“There were good arguments on both sides and the staff at the RIAA are thoughtful, good people who work hard to protect their constituency.”
Is there another group called the RIAA out there??
Rick
June 6th, 2006 at 4:48 pm
I wasn’t me
I was just doing my job
If I didn’t someone else would
etc..
June 6th, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Hilary distancing herself from the RIAA and it’s “lawsuits”? Very interesting. Not surprizing.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:41 pm
What the hell is this–> [sic]? It completely ruined this article in it’s overkill.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sic
June 7th, 2006 at 1:04 am
I was getting input at Boycott-riaa.com (when I was still there) that had some interesting meetings taking place at the RIAA concerning downloads, digital music and labels online stategeries. Nothing I could ever confirm, but my info was that Hilary was telling the labels to “wake-up” in so many words. And they weren’t buying it.
What I heard was that she was basically telling them “If you build it they will come” but with the few feeble attempts at the labels trying to build their own services, that were difficult to use, unreliable, and running into the same
licensing issues that independent websites were dealing with, they decided against it.
Then I saw Hilary at the Future of Music Coalition conference on a panel, and while her mouth was speaking the “company line” her body language, and attitude didn’t seem to project that she believed it. (I was a portrait photographer for 20 years so I’m pretty good at reading people’s body language)
She could have just been having a case of S squared D squared (Same Shiat, Different Day) but the effect on me was such that I actually made a comment to a lobbyist who represented a number of the file sharing companies, about it. As I recall he agreed. A few months later Hilary “retired” from the RIAA.
While Hilary was at the helm of the RIAA THe DMCA was passed, while the US was concentrating on Monica Lewinsky and Bill (America’s first black President) Clinton. The DMCA was passed on October 28, 1998. With all the MSM concentrating on the Clinton/Lewinsky stuff, not one MSM outlet every said word one about the DMCA.
Interesting side notes here:
1) Amy Weiss who worked for Clinton in the Press secretaries officce left to become the major mouthpiece for the RIAA. She now works for the UN Foundation http://www.unfoundation.org/about/staff/weiss.asp
2) Mitch Glazer was the the Senate Judiciary Committee Lawyer during Clintons impeachment hearings, later added the “Four little words” into a 1400 page satellite bill that basically made all music as works for hire. He called it a “technical adjustment” . Story link: http://archive.salon.com/ent/music/feature/2000/08/28/work_for_hire/index.html
It took two years, numerous hearings, a bill introduced and passed and Clinton’s signature to get it undone. He left the Senate (approx salary $89,000US) to go to work for ther RIAA for a an approx. salary of 500,000 the RIAA’s Primary lobbyist.
http://www.riaa.com/News/newsletter/press2000/021000.asp
Remember the RIAA represent the major labels, they act as a lighting rod to keep your anger directed away from them and at a lighting rod. A quick check of the board and membership list will tell you you to boycott.
June 7th, 2006 at 1:11 am
That’s a bit fucking rich!
and
“…propietary [sic] DRM just bugs me.”
Welcome to the club sister. Just do what the rest of us do: SAY NO TO DRM.
June 7th, 2006 at 5:57 am
so the RIAA wasn’t evil at one point? who’s the Karl Rove behind the current RIAA? (bad memory)
The Karl Rove joke comes from American Dad! where Karl Rove is drawn as Darth Sidious
June 7th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
“There were good arguments on both sides and the staff at the RIAA are thoughtful, good people who work hard to protect their constituency.”
The RIAA’s ‘constituency’ are the corporate executives and the stockholders of the conglomerates that own the major labels, and DEFINITELY NOT, REPEAT NOT, the creative people, such as songwriters, performance artists, recording engineers, acoustical engineers, etc., who actually create the works the RIAA’s ‘constituency’ distributes.
The RIAA’s name can now be considered misleading. It really doesn’t represent the ‘Recording Industry’ as the actual ‘recording’ is now almost exclusively performed by a myriad of smaller companies and individuals working on a contract, or per project basis, who are not employees are the major labels. The major labels should be referred to as the “Recorded Music Distributing Industry.”
As for Ms. Rosen, she’s being a bit disingenuous in attempting to distance herself from the debacle of lawsuits against dead people, grandmothers who have never touched a computer, 12 year olds, computer-illiterate parents, etc. Given the way corporate organizations work, there are many months (or years) of planning before anything is actually implemented. She could have easily put a stop to this at the very outset by setting a boundary that they were not going to sue individuals who were not attempting to profit from filesharing.
However, it’s hardly unusual that a group of lawyers (which is the predominant occupation comprising the upper echelons of the RIAA’s staff, the “thoughtful and good people” Ms. Rosen referred to) decided to address a ‘problem’ (that had a wide range of solutions) with lawsuits. I would venture to guess that if the RIAA senior staff were MBAs instead of lawyers, they would have developed new business models and distribution methods.
June 7th, 2006 at 4:02 pm
you have all got it Wrong the Record Labels Sue you not the RIAA.
June 7th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
True but the RIAA acting on behalf of the labels files the lawsuits, and lawyers.
June 7th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Here, here. If the point is for the author if the story to look like a pompous ass – they have succeeded. Also, the many [sic]’s might be a little more credible if the author understood punctuation (which by my observation, they don’t)
June 8th, 2006 at 11:25 am
really. it would make me smile.