Want To Know Just How Out Of Touch Sony Is?

from the read-this dept

We all know that the execs at record labels are out of touch, but sometimes they need to come right out and show us just how clueless they really are. Carlo writes in to tell us about an interview with Sony Music's CEO Andrew Lack where he starts ranting and raving about the content industry and how there simply are no business models unless they can protect their content. That's funny, because quite a few musical acts have discovered that there are any number of creative ways to make money without overly protecting content. There's also fun stuff like saying "piracy" is too weak a word, since anyone copying unauthorized music is stealing like "criminals and thieves in the night." I hate to break it to Mr. Lack, but stealing has a pretty well defined meaning, and even the Supreme Court has made it clear that copyright infringement and stealing are two totally separate things. That doesn't make one right -- but it is different. Lack also whines about how he's had to "fire thousands of people" over the past few years, all due to piracy (he claims), rather than, say, his own inability to adjust the company to a changing marketplace. I'm sure it was very sad when all of those buggy makers and horse whip makers went out of business too, but it's what happens if you can't keep up. There used to be a lot of more telephone switchboard operators around also, but technology made that job obsolete. Does Lack think we should have never implemented direct dialing, as it ruined the lives (as he implies with the people who got fired) of all of those operators? No wonder Sony Music is doing moronic stunts like shutting down a tribute mashup band. Also, it's no wonder that Sony has lost out in the portable music player market that they used to own with the Walkman. While even Sony corporate bosses have recognized that the ridiculous ideas from the music division have held the company back, it seems that no one let the folks in the music division know that.