 | |
| |
| ★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://www.salon.com/tech/log/2000/02/09/mp3/index.html | Nouvelle recherche | Portail wanayoo |
| ||||
|
Arts & Entertainment Books Comics Health & Body Media Mothers Who Think News People Politics2000  TechnologyTravel & Food  Columnists
- - - - - - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - - - - - - View From the Top - - - - - - - - - - - - Also Today For a full list of today's Salon Technology stories, go to the
Technology home page. - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Recently in Salon Technology Log
You, too, can be a drug kingpin
The force of "G"
Site for gays in the military hits the auction block
Texas' death-row peep show
The shape of open source to come Complete archives for Technology - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - barnesandnoble.com Save up to 40% at barnesandnoble.com E-commerce
|
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Feb. 9, 2000 | But on Tuesday, the MP3 movement bit back: less than a month
after the RIAA slapped MP3.com with a lawsuit
for its new My.MP3.com service, Michael Robertson, CEO of
MP3.com, is alleging that Hillary Rosen, CEO of the RIAA, has
spent two years trying to sabotage his business. Why else,
Robertson asks would Rosen call analysts to discuss the impact of
a lawsuit on MP3.com's stock price, just days before the RIAA
filed suit against the company. "What goal was she trying to
achieve?" he muses. Phone calls to analysts are a rather cryptic example of unfair
business practices; but Robertson says that the RIAA also
pressured member companies such as Columbia House to pull
advertising from his site, told artists and their agents that
MP3.com was engaging in theft, and generally spread propaganda
that MP3s were illegal. "I'm hoping to stop their interference
with our course of business. It's not just analysts, but a course
of behavior that we believe has affected advertisers, managers of
artists and analysts," says Robertson. Rosen contends that MP3.com is making allegations just to try to
silence her. In a statement,
she called the lawsuit "ridiculous." "This is a transparent
attempt on the part of MP3.com to silence criticism of its
infringing tactics. It won't work." It may prove a silly game of tit-for-tat, but the new lawsuit
does pose some interesting questions. Has the RIAA achieved its
apparent goal of tainting the very word MP3 with a stench of
illegality? Has its public distaste for the MP3 movement, and
Robertson's business practices in particular, actually hurt
MP3.com's bottom line? To date, the RIAA has settled every suit it has filed. Of course,
the verdict is still out on the cases against Napster and
MP3.com's Beam-It, but Robertson is no longer content to sit back
and wait for potential vindication. "There's been enough bullying
on the playground: Eventually you want to call the teacher on the
bully and make it stop."
- - - - - - - - - - - - Sound off Related Salon stories The Napster files A little MP3 file-sharing program outlines the shape of things to come in the music industry -- and it's not what the big labels think. MP3 free-for-all The tiny Napster is shaking the music industry to its foundation.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Search Salon - - - - - - - - - - - - Become a Salon member. Click here.
| |||
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
Arts & Entertainment | Books | Columnists | Comics | Health & Body
Media | Mothers Who Think | News | People | Politics2000 | Technology | Travel & Food
Copyright © 2000 Salon.com All rights reserved.
