Recording Industry Association of America Hilary
Rosen, President and CEO of the RIAA, has been a big part
of the association’s lawsuit against the music-sharing
service Napster.
By Laura Morgan
Daily Bruin Contributor
The year 2000 may have been Sisqo’s year to unleash the
dragon but it was also the year to unleash Napster.
Recent reports have shown that Napster, which allows Internet
users to search for and download MP3 files with ease, has
contributed to a steady decline in the sale of CD singles.
One woman, however, is putting a stop to this ““ Hilary
Rosen, president and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of
America, the association responsible for filing the lawsuit against
Napster.
Before becoming the record industry’s most coveted hero,
Rosen found herself as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., a career
that gave her a firm foundation in what was to become one of the
record industry’s biggest battles.
“The governor of New Jersey was a friend of (my
mother),” Rosen said in an interview at the Four Seasons
Hotel. “He put me to work in the Washington office while I
was in college, and I really liked it.”
After graduating with a degree in business from George
Washington University, Rosen decided to stay in Washington, D.C. to
take a job with a small lobbying firm rather than moving to New
York like many of her college peers.
“One of our clients was the Song Writers Association, and
so I started working on copyright law,” Rosen said. “I
met a lot of people in the music community who really worked hard
and depended on this concept of intellectual property for their
livelihood. It was something I hadn’t thought about before
but I developed an appreciation for the fragile system of copyright
law that is the basis of the entire entertainment
industry.”
Rosen’s knowledge of copyright law later played a key role
in her life when she was offered a job at the RIAA, a trade group
that represents the $15 billion U.S. sound recording industry. This
was particularly appealing to Rosen because it was a mix of music,
business and politics. After more than 11 years at the
organization, Rosen was appointed president and CEO in January of
1998. Her position became a key public role when members of the
trade association began to feel they were being threatened by an
emerging cataloging system known as Napster. Rosen noticed Napster
when it initially only had a few thousand users.
“I think I had a fairly typical reaction,” Rosen
said. “I thought it was really interesting and innovative,
but I knew that it was wrong. Not just the copyright infringement
but that this was literally facilitating stealing.”
Rosen, who didn’t want to sue in the beginning, thought
Napster was something that would be good for the industry and
artists. Therefore, she worked with them for five months before
filing a lawsuit, in hopes that Napster’s management would
try to come up with a subscription system ““ the sort of
system that, ironically, Napster is currently promoting.
“They rejected virtually every attempted outreach,”
Rosen said. “We were kind of left with no choice but to
sue.”
Rosen feels that the steps made by recording artists such as
Metallica focused the media and artistic community on the fact that
the artists had a direct interest in the lawsuit and that it
wasn’t just a corporate action.
“Lars Ulrich and the guys of Metallica are my
heroes,” Rosen said. “They were so battered by the
Internet community and by the media after they came out and filed
their own lawsuit. They weren’t doing it because they were
losing money; they have plenty of money. But they were suing
because they remembered what it was like not to be famous, and they
were worried about the next Metallica.”
Rosen always thought the lawsuit was a cut-and-dried
situation;Â however, the judges in the Ninth District Circuit
Court did not find it quite as simple. The first ruling was in
favor of the RIAA, but Napster filed an appeal. Recently,
however, the courts have again ruled in favor of the RIAA, and
Napster is now facing the obstacle of finding a new way to present
itself.
“I always thought we’d win,” Rosen said.
“I’ve had my convictions challenged, but I guess I
always thought that the case was relatively clear. While it has not
been fair for the copyright community and while there has been real
damage done, it has hopefully given Napster a chance to try and
create a legitimate system.”
Even though Rosen has done the ultimate job of tackling the
problem of online pirating, she is seeing the emergence of a the
use of CD burners and recordable discs known as CD-Rs to illegally
duplicate copyrighted material.
“We’re having a real problem trying to figure out
what to do with CD-Rs right now,” Rosen said. “It all
comes down to balance and volume. I don’t have a problem with
someone who has a CD and makes compilations or does his own thing,
but I do have a problem with one person buying a CD and making 30
copies for everyone on their floor.”
With such pirating techniques as Napster and CD-Rs threatening
music industry profits, members of the recording industry are
looking to give consumers a service that is secure and protects
intellectual property rights via the Internet.
“There’s a lot of music for sale online now, but no
one’s paying attention to it because of Napster,” Rosen
said. “I think now what everybody is looking at are the
subscription services. I think we are five to six months away from
a real good system.”