Slashdot Mirror
Hilary Rosen Will Step Down As RIAA Head
Phoenix666 writes "NYT Business reports Hilary Rosen is leaving. Question is, what head will spring from the Hydra next? Could this signal a shift in the RIAA's tactics? The article reports 'Rosen's departure comes as the organization sought to soften its image among Internet consumers, many of whom viewed the RIAA -- and Rosen personally -- with antipathy over incessant pressure for crackdowns on sharing digital music over the Internet.'" A press release on the RIAA site says that Rosen will leave at the end of this year.
You know, I really couldn't care who's at the head of the RIAA train.
Good. She's leaving. Whatever. She's leaving to change the image - not the politics. But even the politics don't bother me so much.
Here's a clue: You will alienate less people if you put out better music. Woot Woot, the clue train is arriving, and this incarnation of the Pop train is finally leaving.
Here's another clue: We all have CD burners. Besides the obvious ability to copy music CD's, what you don't realize it has taught us is how cheap CD's truely are. I know there's the cost of the production of the album, the marketing, etc., but over 8 million copies, those costs are negligable. People hate you because the last CD they bought cost them $18.99 and the last CD they burned cost $1.76, including the label, the insert, and the case.
~Will
sig?
A little research would have shown that sales were up during the Napster era, and only went into decline in the two years after the service died out. It wouldn't be suprising to find that these folks were being asked to leave because someone actually looked at the numbers and figured out it's not cost effective to declare war on your customers.
Even if she resigns, things will get worse - not better. Nothing has changed, they have held themselves accountable to ramming copyrights down our throat, even if it means tossing out the 1st and 4th amendment and more. Just as the plantation masters of the 1850's believed that the entire purpose of the industrial revolution was to use inventions like the cotton-gyn to expand their plantations for unlimited controll and profit, modern day copyright lords believe the internet is the leverage tool that they will use to ram copyrights down everyones throat, and controll every last bit of content in existence.
Information is simply too easy to manipulate and copy, either they will half to controll all of it, or none of it. And you had better bet that their goal is to controll all of it - they have not changed one bit. Sorry, it's not over till the fat lady sings. Copyrights, the DMCA, infinite extensions, warrentless searches and seizures, and more are still here and still kicking everybody's but. Dont buy it for a second - the fundamental facts have not changed one bit.
While her successor may be no better than Hilary Rosen, I imagine even they are glad to see her go. They don't all believe that piracy is why sales are down. They won't say it, but many in the recording industry blame Hilary for their woes. Everyone needs to continue to boycott the recording industry. We are winning this fight! Hilary Rosen has surrendered.
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
Even if the natural order of things is for the old money music publishers to go out of business, do you really think the Congresscritters are going to just stand by while a multi-billion dollar industry goes down the drain? Certainly not! There are way too many jobs and livlihoods dependent on Hollywood to just have them disappear because of some newfangled technology that punks think they can abuse. (note sarcasm, please). Back in the late 1970s a guy named Frank Zappa summed it up nicely on the album "Joe's Garage":
Man oh man, Zappa was WAY ahead of his time. Well, at least by 20 years or so.
You are right. From what I have heard on the grapevine, Rosen is privately very unhappy with the recording industry's response to file-sharing, even though she could never say this publicly. If she was not constrained in what she can say by her position, you might find that she agrees with much of what the RIAA's critics have to say.
I think that most of us can agree that this is a good thing. However, it is January. She can still do a lot of damage in a year. AND, I would hate to see what she did as a last minute effort to leave her mark on the industry.
I for one am so tired of the price structure of audio CD's that I've quit purchasing them outright.
I just purchased the movie "Signs" for $17.99 which I might consider to be "reasonable". For one, "Signs" must have cost millions to make. I don't have the amount at hand, but I must imagine that it cost over 10 million dollars. Now, how much does it cost to produce a single album for a group? Less than a million?
In my view audio CD's should be priced at the point at which it becomes pointless for me to even try to pirate them. The price I think audio CD's should sell for is $4.99 plus applicable tax. At that price it is just not convenient to put together all the effort to copy them or pirate mp3's of them. After all, what I would really like is the original high quality PCM samples not mp3's.
If CD's actually cost around a dollar to produce, then the producers can double that when they sell them. That will be two dollars when they sell them to companies like Best Buy. Then, Best Buy can turn around and sell them for double that price, which is four dollars. Of course there will be some variation from state to state so we add a dollar to cover extra's. At most, a $5.99 cost of a CD would be plenty.
If CD's were priced at one third of what they are now then I'd actually purchase more than I am currently purchasing at the current price, way more than to cover the amount they think they would be losing. A secondary problem is the sheer number of artists that I want to purchase grows by leaps and bounds every year, but my purchasing power does not. Everytime I go into a store like Media Play the number of CD's grows, but I still can't take advantage of that.
I've got to imagine that the only reason CD's still sell at the $17 and $18 dollar mall prices is because of stupid teenage girls with large parental pocketbooks. And, yes, that was a slam, so yea, I'm blaming the music industry and stupid teenagers for the current prices of CD's.
The cost structure of CD's is now and has always been ridiculous. We are only now beginning to realize that. The music industry is currently living way beyond it's means and it's time to wake them up and serve them some hot coffee. Until that time I'm done with them. My boycott has started and will not abate until the music industry sees reason.
better the known devil than the unknown angel
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
Don't be so sure. I just read the latest issue of Wired, which has a relatively good article on Hillary Rosen.
Now, I'm not going to say she isn't the monster we imagine her to be, but we have to understand that she is only the head of a massive organization that is funded by several massive corporations. The words that came out of Hillary's mouth were not nessessarily hers, and if the record companies can get you to think that the opinions of the RIAA are somehow different from the opinions of the major record labels, then they have won an important battle.
The record labels do not understand the internet, file trading, MP3s, or anything other than the carefully crafted way they've done business since the 1940's. There were many people paying the RIAA's bills who thought that Hillary Rosen was way too soft on piracy, and thought that the genie should (and could) be put back in the bottle.
We absolutely have to understand that the person to follow Hillary could just as likely be worse than she ever was.
-------------------------------------------------
I wouldn't be surprised if she left simply because she was tired of dealing with them and their lack of vision. I'd love to see what she *really* thinks.
All the more reason to have a Slashdot interview! Get on it, Taco--imagine what a coup for this site it would be!
Well, I feel that the replacement may look like a friendly santa claus, but under that nice smile and family friendly approach hides a demon.
Think about it, if they soften their image, people will listen to them and let them get away with more wheeling and dealing away from the limelight. Netizens, do not lose your vigil! The face may change, but the mind is still the same!
That, or they could just spawn someone just as bad as her.
This doesnt matter for many, many reasons. Yes this woman has been irritating, but she is just a representative of a larger industry. The RIAA is just a lobbying body, the real problem is the member labels that support this crap, not the RIAA. You can block the RIAA IP's all you want, but what about the hundreds and hundreds of member labels...did you remember to block them too? And dont forget the sister org of the RIAA which has gotten some press here on slashdot recently, the IFPI. Ha! And you thought the RIAA was the problem all this time. Just remember the concept of 'lightning rod' here.
If you doubt any of what Im saying, and your halfway competent, dig into it a little deeper instead of going with the quick and visible enemy. Sooner or later, you will realize that the RIAA website is just a 'honeypot'. I mean come on, nobody is as stupid to do what they have done, and leave it that way after its been hacked for months...you say I am making this up...oh no...look at this security hole wide enough to fly the whole planet through. This problem has been exploited at least twice now to deface the page in recent months and nothing has been done to make it even the slightest bit better. All though as I test these links, the whole site seems to be down yet again. I cant imagine how that happened.