Ex-RIAA Boss Ignores All Criticisim Of SOPA/PIPA, Claims Any Complaints Are Trying To Justify Stealing

from the this-is-how-you-got-into-such-a-mess dept

Over the long weekend, Jay Rosen was kind enough to tweet out a link to my recent "definitive" post highlighting all the problems with SOPA and PIPA. Lots of folks picked up on it, but the one that struck me as the most interesting was from Hilary Rosen, who tweeted back:

The Definitive Post?? Think analog. If a store doesn't sell u what u want, u are justified stealing it?

Hilary Rosen, of course, spent many years as the CEO of the RIAA. And while she hasn't been in that job since 2003, she presided over the Napster lawsuit and the beginnings of the Grokster lawsuit. I believe she left just before the RIAA started suing individuals for file sharing. She also appeared to have second thoughts about the strategy she led while in charge of the RIAA. However, this comment suggests otherwise.

Thinking analog has been the major problem that the RIAA (and MPAA, among others) have had for a long, long time. Rosen's big mistake when she was in charge of the RIAA was that she kept thinking analog. Isn't it time, perhaps, that she started thinking digitally?

But, even more to the point, it's getting ridiculous how many people defending SOPA/PIPA are doing so using this logic. They brush off all of the specific concerns, the highlights of problematic language, and they conclude "why are you justifying theft?" Of course, that's ridiculous. Beyond the fact that "theft" and "infringement" are very different (don't get me started), nothing in anyone's complaints about SOPA or PIPA have anything to do with "justifying" infringement. In fact, in the post that was being discussed, we clearly noted that infringement is a problem. We just disagree that PIPA and SOPA are reasonably, or even effective, solutions.

It's really quite ridiculous to lay out in such great detail all of the problems of the bill, only to have someone -- and someone who is partially responsible for the mess the record labels are in today -- brush off the entire thing by falsely stating that we're "justifying stealing." Unfortunately, this kind of "debate" is all too common. It seems that almost no one is interested in actually discussing the problems of the bill. They just insist that if you highlight problems in the bill you're trying to justify something.

Filed Under: copyright, hilary rosen, pipa, protect ip, sopa
Companies: riaa

BP Hires Former RIAA Boss For PR Work

from the why-don't-you-just-sue-all-the-oil? dept

It's been a little while since we last wrote about Hilary Rosen, who ran the RIAA for many years, and presided over its initial disastrous decision to fight the internet and go after users. However, we have to say that it's somewhat amusing to find out that BP has now hired Rosen for PR help in dealing with the oil spill in the Gulf. Hopefully "suing all the people who live along the coast" isn't one of her suggestions. But, perhaps she can figure out a way to blame the spill on "pirates" of some kind, right?

Filed Under: hilary rosen
Companies: bp, riaa

Former RIAA Boss States The Obvious: The Record Labels Screwed Up... And Continue To Screw Up

from the again-and-again-and-again dept

Hilary Rosen was the head of the RIAA for many years, and led the RIAA's attack on Napster and other early file sharing systems. She resigned in 2003, just before the RIAA began its campaign of suing individuals for file sharing, though long after the strategy had been decided upon and put in place. Since she left the RIAA, she surprised people by saying a lot of things that seemed to go against her former views -- including throwing some support behind Creative Commons, admitting that music interoperability was important (something the labels fought against for a long time) and then came her rather surprising admission that she believed suing file sharing platforms was a dead end strategy and that she hated DRM -- and then even admitting that this has always really been a business model issue, rather than a legal issue. Of course, what she ignored is that she helped make that so.

Billboard is now running an interview with Hilary Rosen to discuss "10 years since the Napster decision" and she's equally forthright, complaining about the many, many mistakes that the industry has made:

The one lesson the industry did not learn after Napster was speed. When you're talking about technology, you have to move quickly on opportunities. The constant refrain is 'there's no money in these opportunities. There's no advances. We don't see the pay off.' But the thing you have to keep pushing back on is 'what are you comparing it to?' If you're comparing it to physical sales or comparing it to an iTunes download, then you're right, it's going to be hard. But what you really need to compare to is how else fans are getting the music, which is free. The lessons of Napster, of rapid fire adoption, have been too quickly forgotten. The industry has moved a little too slow and have not benefited as much as they might have by the benefits of technology.

She does a little to defend the RIAA by noting, accurately, that:

I think the RIAA became the central organizing vehicle for people's anger. But they don't work for the consumers. They work for the industry. It's the business leaders in the industry that are calling the shots there.

That's absolutely true, of course. But it leaves out the fact that the RIAA itself has always promoted the idea that it does represent the best interests of music itself, including for the consumer. And that was true when Rosen was there as well. So whenever politicians or the press want to understand what's happening in the music world, they look for a quote from the RIAA, not recognizing that it's a very twisted view -- one focused on protecting a business model used by a single set of companies in the industry.

Either way, it's a worthwhile read, though it reminds you how little the industry did back when it actually could have embraced the future.

Filed Under: hilary rosen, record labels
Companies: riaa