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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.
The witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!
Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan
Now that she's stepped down, maybe she's available for a Slashdot Interview?
But then again, maybe not. I can see the questions now...
"Don't wish for a new enemy, you won't know what tricks are up its sleeves!"
Rosen said. ``But I have young children and I want to devote more of my time to them.''
May god have mercy on their souls.
Steve Jobs for RIAA Head!
Jason
ProfQuotes
... there is a job opening in Hell.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
Jack Valenti to replace her at the end of her term.
...is that, when these children become teenagers, that she will be bombarded with a steady stream of the shitty music she lobbied for. What's that Hillary? You hate Brittany Spears? Too F*cking bad! You could have had diversity, but YOU didn't want it. HA!
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Why are you all celebrating already? It doesn't take effect until the end of the year. Until then nothing important will change in the RIAA.
After she leaves? Nothing will change then either.
Go here to create your own Slashdot dis
Hilary Rosen Will Step Down As RIAA Head
Someone be sure to cauterize the wound! Quickly, Or seven more execs will take her place!
"Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
maybe Bill Gates will take over
uh oh, all future CDs require an online activation code, and crashes your CD player, which must be 90x speed in order to hear the songs at "normal tone"
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?
If by "antipathy" you mean "violent hatred", you win! It missed a reason why I view them this way though - the fact that they have turned the popular music scene into a mechanical whore for the guys upstairs.
Can they soften their image? Aren't they surpassing Microsoft and Kim Jong II on the list of evil things we hate?
I'm sure the RIAA will find another shill in no time: All they need is an entertainment lawyer who will set aside ethics and the common good in exchage for a large bundle of money. Goodness knows how long it will take them to find one of those.
... but it's the equivalent of 10 Music Industry CEOs in RIAA math.
The song IN MP3 FORMAT!
or wait until tomorrow for the online article. This is an interview on her which was an interesting read. Here's what the Web site said:
Hating Hilary [Coming Jan. 23]
Napster slayer. Corporate thug. Industry shill. Hilary Rosen has heard it all as the reviled frontwoman for the music biz. Sure, she knows file-sharing is the future. She's just fighting to give the dinosaurs one last gasp.
By Matt Bai
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Replacing Hiliary Rosen with someone nicer won't cut it.
The RIAA's actions are the very thing that define the attitudes of consumers towards it. Their propaganda is irrelevant to the people they are trying to address. This is not due to the vehicle they are using to deliver their message, but the very simple and plain fact that their message is not one that people agree with, nor is it one people will agree with given time.
Nobody likes Hiliary Rosen because of what she represents. It was never a personal issue. Though many people have directed their anger towards her, it was never at her as an individual, but rather as the figurehead of an organization who's goals are in opposition to a large percentage of the public.
The RIAA is trying the same tactic the U.S is going to try with the Middle East. Ratchet up the propaganda to people who know its propganada and despise it, attempt to paint a picture of things that is directly at odds with what people see and experience every day, all the while continuing with the same actions the people hate.
This is a move that is a desperate gamble by the RIAA to win a struggle they are losing. An act that has more to do with not knowing what else to do, than a concrete plan based in logic and well-thought out strategy.
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.
Hillary Rosen will be missed for all she's done for Slashdot, geeks, and Humanity. As all people who resign are. Btw, who is Hilary Rosen?? ;-)
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
I hate to remind everyone but it is still January of 2003... which means she will be around for awhile still.
That way, /. posters will be able to flame RIAA, hammer home the blandness of mainstream music offerings and blame Canada in a single post!
Think about it, in future you'll be able to get three on-topic posts for the price of one! Woot!
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
This is a profound action by Ms. Rosen. The music industry is in serious trouble. The movie industry can bring us value and epics, such as 'Lord of the Rings', and DVD videos priced at 14.99. Most people I know would rather buy a DVD, and most are a good value.
On the other hand, what can the music industry bring us? What value do they have anymore? CD prices are way too high, and the value they have in most people's eyes are low. You cannot really produce an epic in terms of music anymore. All the good stuff has already been written and produced (think the 80s and 70s).
Her stepping down is waving the white flag, which states, I'm tired of fighting a losing battle, and I know our days are numbered. I think that after she came up with/annouced the zany levy the ISP, she realized that she could no longer carry on.
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.
Whoops! I'm sorry. I pressed the Submit instead of Preview.
The story can be found here.
Rosen essentially wants ISP's to pay a fee to the RIAA to compensate for the loss of revenues due to piracy across the net. She would also like to see the ISP's begin scanning P2P type files being swapped on the net for pirated works.
The successor for Rosen will undoubtedly try to take a more subtle approach. Essentially, we'll be seeing the equivalent of the "Softer Side of RIAA" advertisements. I would implore the Slashdot community to see through the new image to the cold, black, evil that is the essence of the RIAA (and MPAA). Hopefully, Rosen doesn't live in Salem lest she run the risk of being burned at the stake!
To know is to have knowledge....to understand is to be enlightened.
music industry will regain their focus on improving quality of music production rather than setting prices for maximizing profit and accusing youngsters not paying enough.
:)
I compare the sound quality of CD now and ten years ago...nothing improved. And then they blame us for listening to sub-quality electronic music. Shame on them. Give us something that worth buying.
Think I should stop ranting, this is the day of celebrating.
"And the electronics industry's attitude toward the labels is summed up by an Apple slogan: Rip. Mix. Burn. Which, a music executive once told me, translates into "Fuck you, record labels."
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.
I know there's the cost of the production of the album, the marketing, etc., but over 8 million copies, those costs are negligable.
What percent of albums even sell one million copies? What's a record company supposed to do with an artist whose album has a slim chance of even going gold?
Will I retire or break 10K?
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.
How long have you been a bitch? ...
Why are you a bitch?
What evil made you a Bitch?
There's nothing Intelligent about Intelligent Design.
Just when the nerd-wing conspiracy to assasinate Hillary Rosen was about to come to fruition, she has to step down and spoil our fun! :(
Repeal the DMCA!
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.
Clearly, most /.ers would like to see Hillary stripped naked (well that could blind a person), tarred and feathered, and ridden out of town on a syphillitic jackass. No love lost here. Of course, this cannot be done, because next thing you know, we'd want to have it done to the rest of the RIAA.
What do you call 6 members of the RIAA buried up to their necks in sand? A good start.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
I seriously think that is a great suggestion, and
I bet that she would agree to it. If she cares
what the
such a move could do nothing but improve her image.
What could she possibly have to lose by agreeing
to such an interview?
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.
...John Ashcroft.
Have a nice day.
If you think
I have young children and I want to devote more of my time to them.
TRANSLATION: I know those brats are on Kazaa right now.
-ted
'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.'
Look what you have done to this poor lady who is just trying hard to make a living.
meet the new boss
same as the old boss
Then again, he also said the kids are alright, and we only now figured out what he meant. zing!
better the known devil than the unknown angel
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
until she leaves everytime we refer to her lets refer to her in the form "outgoing RIAA president Hilary Rosen said blah blah blah". That will deny credibility to RIAA and also to her until 2004.
mod this up pls.
Will we have a Thorne after Rosen?
That's slashdot priorities for ya.
The cake is a pie
I should probably post this AC but what the hell.
I'm no fan of Hillary Rosen's tactics as head of the RIAA. But it should be pointed out that she's the head of a lobbying/representative group. She does the bidding of the CEOs whose companies pony up fat wads of cash for the services of the organization that she heads. In a recent Wired article (which will be online tomorrow according to the website) she said that her job is basically to do all the unpopular shit that the record execs want her to do, while shielding them from the criticism. In other words, she's a paper tiger. Her successor will be one as well. She and the RIAA are doing the bidding of the likes of Sony, Vivendi Universal, AOL-TW and all the others. I don't see anyone giving Sean (Pissy) Coombs a hard time about the RIAA's tactics but he's as culpable (as the head of a label that is an RIAA member) as Hillary Rosen is.
If you don't like the shit the RIAA is pulling (and you shouldn't), stop buying music from companies that support the RIAA. Of course, after seeing the list here you'll have quite a hard time finding any music to buy.
BFL
There's one thing computing teaches you, and that's that there's no point to remembering everything.
--Doug Copland
As you say, we have 11 months to go. It's unusual to keep a lame duck CEO kicking around for that length of time. Then again, maybe they have an especially vile agenda and want her to act as the lightning rod for a while longer.
The search for a replacement ought to be interesting. RIAA leader is one of the toughest jobs in the world today; right up there with Saddam's travel agent.
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.
Looks like the RIAA just lost 200 pounds of ugly fat...too bad they still need to lose about a thousand more.
Hey Hilary, I'll save you a spot in the unemployment line, bitch.
IGB: More fun than eating oatmeal!
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.
This weekend at walmart, we're rolling back prices. Look at this example;
The Beast - was $665.95
Now $665.93
Always the lowest prices on the brands you trust. Always.
anything i tell you will cloud your opinion.
So?
Look, if the only way to break even (or make a decent profit) is to raise the prices above what the customer thinks is reasonable, then the proper thing to do is go out of business. The proper thing is not to whine about how much it costs to sell your product, in the hopes that the consumer will give you bonus sympathy dollars, instead of saving their money and getting better goods and services for lower prices elsewhere.
Not to mention the fact that DVDs cost just as much to manufacture and distribute, and the content costs several orders of magnitude more to produce... by your reasoning, Black Hawk Down should cost five or six times more than the its own soundtrack, instead of almost exactly the same price.
But my first point is so important that I'm going to repeat it: if you can't sell a product at a price that people will pay, get out of the business.
Any sufficiently well-organized community is indistinguishable from Government.