January 6, 2009 7:35 AM
How the music biz blew it on downloading; read Steve Knopper's chat transcript
The music industry still hasn't recovered from its battle with Napster and continues to reel from their clumsy efforts to adapt to the digital downloading era.
Steve Knopper details the industry's problems in his new book Appetite for Self Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age ($26.00 Simon & Schuster),.
Knopper, a Denver-based contributing editor for Rolling Stone whose work also appearas frequently in the Rocky Mountain News, chatted online about is book. Read the transcript here.
He will discuss and sign copies of his book during an appearance at 7:30 p.m. tonight at Tattered Cover, 2526 E Colfax Ave.
An excerpt from the book details the industry's response to the file-sharing service Napster.
Frank Creighton, head of the Recording Industry Association of America's antipiracy division, was the first to discover Napster.com online. He showed it to Hilary Rosen, chairwoman of trade association for the top record labels. "Oh my God," she responded. It was as if vandals had broken the locks on all the record stores and were looting merchandise in bulk. Creighton sent an e-mail to the registered user for the Napster Web site."We're happy to talk with you," responded two names Creighton had never heard of - Shawn Fanning and John Fanning. "We're glad you find our technology interesting and we want to figure out internally who are the right people to sit down with you."
Creighton received two more responses over the next few weeks, then nothing. He called again. And again. Finally, Richardson returned his call. When he mentioned his concerns about copyright infringement, she said she'd talk to others within the company and get back to him. He flew to California for business and tried to reach Richardson between meetings.
He called several times. No response. That made him angry. A week later, she called back. This time, Richardson knew much more about the legal issues. She suggested Napster was totally legal, given the U.S. Supreme Court's groundbreaking 1984 decision legalizing Sony's Betamax for home-taping TV shows. She refused to shut down Napster per his request. Rosen got the message. On Oct. 27, 1999, Rosen instructed the RIAA lawyers to draft a complaint.
Richardson recalls her two phone conversations with Creighton. For the first, he was cordial. For the second, she says, "The whole tone changed. It was like, 'Listen, you come talk to us, but I'm telling you right now, you really need to think about shutting things down before we talk.' Then the next conversation was with Hilary." The phone conversation between the two women blew up into an argument.
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