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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.

37 of 552 comments (clear)

  1. Ding Dong by Dolly_Llama · · Score: 5, Funny

    The witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!

    --

    Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan

    1. Re:Ding Dong by MoOsEb0y · · Score: 5, Funny

      isn't that song copyrighted? I'm going to have to sue you under the DMCA... blah blah blah

    2. Re:Ding Dong by bnenning · · Score: 4, Funny
      Actually, copyrights run out after 50 or so years


      Welcome back, how was your coma?

      --
      How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
    3. Re:Ding Dong by swschrad · · Score: 5, Funny

      "She said the RIAA board will conduct a search for her replacement." -AP

      Hey, how about Kevin Mitnick? he's availiable now.

      --
      if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
    4. Re:Ding Dong by AnalogDiehard · · Score: 5, Insightful
      The witch is dead, the wicked witch is dead!

      (big explosion of smoke and fire, munchkin geeks scatter at the sight of Valenti in witches' drag)

      I thought you said the wicked witch was dead!

      Ah, but we killed the wicked witch of the east; this is her sister, the wicked witch of the west. She's much worse.

      --
      Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
    5. Re:Ding Dong by einTier · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

      --
      -------------------------------------------------- $665.95 -- retail price of the beast.
  2. Interview? by Muerte23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    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...

    1. Re:Interview? by NanoGator · · Score: 4, Funny

      "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... "


      Look guys, she's not the enemy anymore. Let's pool our money together and send her a T-shirt or something to prove there's no hard feelings. She seems to like this one.

      --
      "Derp de derp."
    2. Re:Interview? by macdaddy357 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      She stepped down to spend time with her children. Yeah, right! She has harmed her industry beyond repair by trying to kill the free promotion of file trading, and calling paying customers thieves, all to slay a paper tiger called "piracy." They suggested that she should leave quietly. Expect more executives to be be forced out as more and more people get tired of their crap, and stop buying CDs.

      --
      How ya like dat?
  3. Good - or bad? by jhouserizer · · Score: 5, Insightful
    My papy always said:

    "Don't wish for a new enemy, you won't know what tricks are up its sleeves!"

    1. Re:Good - or bad? by unicron · · Score: 4, Funny

      What your daddy meant to say, between belches of scotch, is "The devil you know is better than the devil you dont."

      --
      Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
  4. mercy by jaxle · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:mercy by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      "Rosen said. ``But I have young children and I want to devote more of my time to them.''"

      She's taking her kids to court. Evidentally, some bits of their DNA were copied from her own. She considers this theft so she's suing them for 1.4 billion dollars in damages. She was quoted as saying

      "All the blood they're generating is based on my own. Trillions of cells using pirated DNA are created every single month! They can't be allowed to do this. I mean, who's going to pay parents to be concieved if all it takes is a couple ordinary body parts?"

  5. Combine this with the last article by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Steve Jobs for RIAA Head!

    Jason
    ProfQuotes

  6. Real reason for leaving... by Jaysyn · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... there is a job opening in Hell.

    Jaysyn

    --
    There is a war going on for your mind.
  7. My only consolation... by siskbc · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...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

  8. Know your Mythology: Lesson 1: The Hydra. by Syncdata · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  9. Quality of music by zerocool^ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?
    1. Re:Quality of music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      FYI: The cost of a legally licensed music CD here in SE Asia is around 9 dollars--Yes, nine.

      Mod me up for being redundant if you will, but if the recording industry can sell music CDs here in Asia for $9 and still make a profit, why can't they do the same in the US?

    2. Re:Quality of music by TheOnlyCoolTim · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Nope.

      I'm 17 and I still think the popular music of today is shit.

      Tim

      --
      Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
  10. Only Hilary Rosen has stepped down.. by sgtsanity · · Score: 4, Funny

    ... but it's the equivalent of 10 Music Industry CEOs in RIAA math.

  11. I PRESENT TO YOU SIR by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    The song IN MP3 FORMAT!

  12. Next head will be Celine Deon... by WIAKywbfatw · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  13. WARNING: Dont Believe it!!! by argoff · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

  14. Continued.... by ciphertext · · Score: 5, Informative

    Whoops! I'm sorry. I pressed the Submit instead of Preview.

    The story can be found here.

    • The two tactics are:
    • Persue ISPs in court to recoup losses for piracy over the internet.
    • Rosen also "advised" the music industry to "develop technological protections instead of relying on enforcement to quash pirating".

    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.
  15. Very true by Sanity · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Very true by NormalVisual · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In her interview in Wired (the print version), she seemed pretty frustrated with the whole recording industry. I too came away thinking that while she was professionally obligated to further the RIAA member companies' agendas, privately she felt they were a bunch of greedy fricking idiots. 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.

      --
      Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
  16. I bet she'd do it by geophile · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Well that was a predictable set of witless responses.


    I seriously think that is a great suggestion, and
    I bet that she would agree to it. If she cares
    what the /. crowd thinks about her at all, then
    such a move could do nothing but improve her image.
    What could she possibly have to lose by agreeing
    to such an interview?

  17. and what will this change???? by rmdyer · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:and what will this change???? by Erasmus+Darwin · · Score: 4, Insightful
      "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?"

      You're forgetting about ticket sales. For the cost of making "Signs", the studio got something they could show in the movie theatre, and something they could slap on DVD. By the time you go out to buy it, they've most likely already made back their initial investment (and then some).

      With an album, on the other hand, people wouldn't pay to go to a concert hall nad have the studio recordings played for them. Instead, they (quite reasonably) demand a separate, live performance from the artists who made the album. That places constraints on both how many performances can be done (no musician can match the 3264 different venues all showing Signs on opening weekend) and it places constraints on how much money the investor can recoup (as concert sales are generally regarded as the area where the artist, a key part of every single live performance, can attempt to make back some of the money that crappy recording contracts cheat them out of).

      Overall, it boils down to two different economic models. You could've just as easily compared an album to a computer game with a modest budget, and you would've come out favoring the album. Sure, at the base level, it's all intellectual property, but the details are a key part of the pricing. (And I haven't even really touched on supply and demand issues, which further differentiate the products.)

  18. Her kids huh? by zerofoo · · Score: 4, Funny

    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

  19. I think Pete Townshend said it best by Savatte · · Score: 5, Funny

    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!

  20. Re:It's still a year... by IvyMike · · Score: 4, Funny

    I hate to remind everyone but it is still January of 2003

    It's just my sense of humor, but the fact that this got modded as "informative" is awesome.

  21. hah hah by ucblockhead · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Oh yeah, that's funny...the person who killed ten million jews is not as bad as the person who wants to charge you $18.99 for a CD.


    That's slashdot priorities for ya.

    --
    The cake is a pie
  22. Anti-karma Post -- Hillary Rosen is NOT the Enemy by bigfatlamer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
  23. Re:END OF THE YEAR! by dcavanaugh · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  24. You know... by Peterus7 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    They're trying to soften their image, trying to let people see the softer side of the RIAA, eh?

    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.