Wednesday, August 14, 2002

THEY'RE COMING TO TAKE YOU AWAY, HA-HA: Yesterday's FT had an interview with the Tipper Gore de nos jours, Hilary Rosen, and came away pretty certain that the RIAA is gearing up to take individual consumers to court over music downloading: Ms Rosen refuses to talk about the plans, or to confirm the RIAA is planning such an initiative, but a few comments she drops in conversation ("when it comes down to it, everybody is individually responsible") support what music industry sources say is happening: that the RIAA is canvassing companies to work out whether pursuing individuals is a viable strategy.
But what might do for the RIAA is complacency rather than the unedifying spectacle of suing people for having MP3 copies of Christopher Cross songs on their PC. Rosen believes "I don't think it's the end of the business - every survey that we've ever done says that music is an incredibly important part of people's lives, consumption of music is still extremely high - we just have to monetise that more effectively and find better ways of getting piracy under control. We will return to growth."
Music, Hilary. People don't feel any emotional attachment to labels, to the industry. American Ice - the biggest corporation in the US in 1900 - must have felt pretty secure that demand for cold drinks would ensure its ice delivery service was always going to be around. Where are they now?
Hilary doesn't mind being attacked [FT] - grappling to monetise your culture...


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