She's singing a new song these days, as I wrote last month. Is the tune really new or is it just the Rosen extended and nuanced mix tape version? Former head of the RIAA, Hillary Rosen hasn't stood still after leaving the 800 pound gorilla of the western music world. She's started a blog for Huffington, become the interim chair of the HRC and founded a consulting firm with Jay Berman, who also formerly cashed RIAA paychecks. She counts XM Radio, a company who have crossed legal paths with that of the RIAA, among her current consulting clients.
Elliot Van Buskirk caught up with Rosen for a Wired magazine interview about her post RIAA life, and some of the things she has to say are incredibly enlightening.
"I have long been an advocate of interoperability. I mean, that was one of my original goals when we started the SDMI initiative in the '90s. I always thought that both security and interoperability were worthy goals, and I think people have really focused almost too much on the security part of it. "
I'm with you Hillary. I wouldn't be such a vocal critic of DRM if it weren't being exploited in a whole host of anti-competitive ways, although I have issues with DRM that extend far beyond customer lock-in.
First Kerry and now Rosen.. are Americans incapable of digesting a nuanced position on complicated issues or is Rosen just a flip-flopper?
[via Wired]
1. Rosen's not a flip-flopper, she's a bullshit artist. If you check out the first blog post she wrote for HuffPuff, she claimed to have spent her last years as head of the RIAA leading the charge for digital distribution. Anyone who payed even minimal attention knows that's an outright lie. She was the biggest impediment to digital media distribution, not a proponent. Digital music sales didn't even get off the ground until after she left.
Mark my words, the only reason she's hawking interoperability right now is because she wants the media companies to control the format instead of the technology companies. You'll notice she talks big about interoperability, but not about getting rid of the DRM. And that's a sucker's game.
She spent how many years lawyering and lobbying against consumer rights, and I'm supposed to give her a bye because she wants interoperability now? Sorry, but no.
Posted at 6:35PM on Jul 11th 2006 by Sage