RIAA Exec Moves Over To Gaming Industry

NewYorkCountryLawyer writes "The same RIAA executive who defended a $222,000 verdict over 24 song files at an academic conference back in March, Kenneth Doroshow, is leaving the RIAA and joining the Entertainment Software Association ('ESA'). As I said on my blog, if Mr. Doroshow 'accomplishes for game manufacturers what he accomplished for the recording industry, I would say the industry's prospects are bleak.'"

Comments

great

[nawcom]

I can't wait for the time when applying no-cd fixes will mean jail time. No, I haven't RTFA, but with the title including "RIAA Exec" and the game industry, I can only think of the worst.

Wrong turf

[unity100]

The gaming community are not like ordinary people in idaho, montana, who do not know about fair use, media cartel predation, overpriced products. not only that, but they are also a more cohesive, communicating group.

its a VERY bad choice for ESA member companies. Right at a time when gamers were starting to complain about games being all the same with sequels, and mass produced without a passion. Great move to take gaming companies prestige further down.

so, will anyone post a list of ESA member companies so we can start avoiding them ?

...and They Were Thinking... What?

[MarkAyen]

Most facets of the entertainment insustry are closely scrutinized by the fan press. And there are fairly large overlaps between music lovers, movie buffs, videogamers, etc. So, you have to wonder if (1) the ESA didn't think anyone would notice that they hired one of the most hated execs in the music industry; or (2) they didn't think the fans would care; or (3) they just don't give a damn what gamers think.

I'm guessing (3), but given the bad blood between the ESA and -- well -- pretty much everyone else in the industry, you'd think they'd at least want to give the impression that they aren't a bunch of bastards with hearts of coal.

Re:Game piracy is a bit different

[mxs]

At the risk of being unpopular, I'm going to say that in my opinion sharing ripped MP3s is morally the equivalent of jaywalking, wheras sharing games is morally closer to shoplifting.

For one thing, I think more work goes into game-making than a Brittney Spears song, and it's done by people I respect rather than people I think are the scum of the earth. For another, it seems to me that the higher costs of making a game makes game piracy closer to real theft. I know recording studio fees are quite expensive, and indie game makers can often make a game without so much as a bank loan, but there's a reason for the generally higher price of games than CDs.

Oh come on, at least compare music from musicians you respect and games from studios you respect. No need to rap on the default example of "bad music" any more. Furthermore, how do YOU know how much time and effort it takes a musician to create their work ? I'm pretty sure many of them are hard-working people, working at least as hard as game-designers. The only difference with the bigger games is that there are more people working on them, total. If pirating a game is morally equivalent to shoplifting a TV, pirating music is probably morally equivalent to shoplifting a towel. It's still shoplifting, and no, it's not, in either case.

There are hardworking people in the music industry sure, just like there are scum in the gaming industry, and I should also say I've worked in neither industry.

All the same, I think game piraters have less of a moral leg to stand on than music pirates. A $220,000 fine for 24 songs or games is ridiculous, but moreso for music.

Riiiight. Because the game retails for $49.99, while the music retails for $19.99 ? That's reality. Neither warrant $220,000.00 fines, ever. The moral leg and the arguments from the "sharers" are pretty much EXACTLY the same. "I'll buy it if I like it." "If I share it, it gets more exposure !" "It's too expensive and EA is treating their employees like slaves, anyway !", etc.

I also would say that in both cases, nothing is actually stolen in the same sense that you would steal a car, and for the RIAA or ESA to sue individuals into bankrupcy with either is/would be dickish. The RIAA and ESA if they follow suit are the real bad guys here.

It's not just dickish, it's also short-sighted, immoral, and counteproductive. But I guess some lessons just have to be learned the hard way.

Re:And you thought the ESA was floundering before.

[ElectricTurtle]

Actually Penny Arcade eXpo is the new big dog in the hemisphere, and deservedly so. I've gone every year and it's unbelievably awesome. This year's is only a week away... and expecting ~55k attendees.

Re:Maybe they found that desireable?

[NewYorkCountryLawyer]

"The same RIAA executive who defended a $222,000 verdict over 24 song files at an academic conference back in March, Kenneth Doroshow, is leaving the RIAA"

I'm pretty sure if he didn't defend that verdict, as an RIAA executive, he wouldn't have been an RIAA executive for very long. Maybe he's leaving the RIAA since he's realized their business practices are shit, and he got tired of defending them? I don't know, but it's possible.

When I mention that he defended it, I mention it to show that he is shameless, and would defend the indefensible. He brought up the subject. He did not have to bring up the subject of a verdict of $222,000 over $23.76 worth of song files, where the copyright infringement -- if it occurred at all -- caused damage in the neighborhood of $8. When I mentioned at the conference that the verdict had made us a laughingstock in the international community, our copanelist -- a Copyright Law professor from Australia -- agreed.

And how did he defend the verdict, by stating -- falsely -- that she 'might' have distributed '10,000,000' copies through Kazaa. As anyone familiar with software knows, her files probably could not have been copied by 100 people, let alone 10,000,000.

Part of me -- I guess my heart -- would like to believe that he left the RIAA because he was tired of defending them. But my brain tells me otherwise.

Re:Game piracy is a bit different

[Mistshadow2k4]

And what about what the game industry does to its paying customers? Remember Starforce? What about DRM so bad that you can't even play the game you paid for? Yes, that happened to me. I bought Neverwinter Nights 2, paid over $40 for it and it won't load in my DVD drive. I can't return it to get my money back either. (My co-worker, who pirated the game, didn't have that problem.) I can say with absolute certainty that will be the last money Atari ever gets from me, which shows you how stupid their draconian DRM is because I would have probably bought 10 more games in the future otherwise.

The games industry will screw you up one side and down the other any time they think they can't get away with it; they proved that with Starforce, which they kept using until the pressure from their customers got very heavy. In short, I understand that they have higher development costs, but from their treatment of their actual customers I don't see how they're any better than the RIAA. To Hell with them too, I say.