Former RIAA chief makes plea for "consumer rights"
Okay, so some invocation of the phrase "chickens coming home to roost" might be in order on this one. Former CEO of the RIAA Hilary Rosen is mad, real mad, that Apple has established a lock-in between the iPod and the iTunes Music Store: all those tracks she downloaded from walmart.com just will not work on her brand new iPod. We're not sure exactly how long ago she left her post so maybe she's just not following these things anymore, but she thinks the only two sources of music playable on the iPod are from the iTMS or from your own ripped CDs — apparently she's never visited sites like eMusic.com where you can download completely DRM-free tracks born fresh from Zion and play them on any player, including the iPod, to your heart's content. And while tracks from the iTMS not playing on third-party players because of Apple's flavor of DRM might be a legitimate complaint, the fact that Microsoft-flavored DRM'd tracks won't play on the iPod has more to do with Microsoft than it does with Stevie J. and his "laconic cool." And you know, where was all of this sudden sympathy with consumer rights and anti-monopoly sentiments during any of the 17 years she was a major player in the music business, eh? It makes our hearts bleed to see the former mouthpiece of the RIAA whining from the other side of the fence, so we've whipped out the world's tiniest violin for the occasion.
[Via slashdot]
