EdgarBronfman
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Edgar Bronfman admits to "inadvertently" going to war with music consumers
By now, we're pretty certain you know how Warner Music's head honcho feels about DRM and its necessity in the digital download space, but apparently, the man behind not one, but two CE-Oh Noes has experienced some form of epiphany. MacUser has it that Edgar Bronfman admitted that the music industry "used to fool itself" by thinking that its content was "perfect just exactly as it was" while speaking at the GSMA Mobile Asia Congress in Macau. He went on to say that it was widely believed that the business would "remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding." He also noted that it essentially went to war "inadvertently" with consumers by "denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find." The conversation was used in part to urge mobile operators to not make the same mistakes again, and while we applaud such a figure for coming forward with a bit of hard truth, it remains to be seen if these sentiments will reverberate further or simply fall on deaf ears.[Via mocoNews]
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XXV - Warner CEO Bronfman calls Jobs' DRM stance "completely without logic or merit."
While EMI might be giving the concept of DRM-free online music sales a bit of thought, it doesn't sound like Warner Music is digging the idea in the slightest. "We advocate the continued use of DRM," said CEO Edgar Bronfman during the Q&A portion of an earnings conference call on Thursday. "The notion that music does not deserve the same protection as software, film, video games or other intellectual property, simply because there is an unprotected legacy product in the physical world, is completely without logic or merit." Edgar apparently couldn't be troubled to spell out exactly what's illogical by the stance espoused by Steve Jobs in his open letter to the industry, but he did decry Steve's method itself: "Frankly, manifestos in advance of those discussions is counter-productive." Wait, does that mean that you were considering getting rid of DRM, but Jobs ruined it all with a whiny letter? Or do you mean that because of his actions you're going to slap your tracks with even more cumbersome DRM just to teach us what happens when people attempt to dissent? We're so confused.
CE-Oh no he didn't! Part XX - Warner Music CEO "fairly certain" his kids pirate music
We're going to assume you're well versed with the RIAA, just about the most god-forsaken industry group that ever did roam the earth (much like its unofficial partner in crime, the MPAA); and more importantly for the purposes of this post, Warner Music, one of the four major labels, which all, incidentally, back the RIAA. So what did Edgar Bronfman, CEO of Warner Music, have to say when questioned as to whether any of his seven kids pirate music? "I'm fairly certain that they have, and I'm fairly certain that they've suffered the consequences." Funny, we haven't heard about any inter-familial lawsuits involving Bronfman sr. v. Bronfman jr. concerning definitions in fair use and music piracy. In fact, given that he knows what pirates live in his house using his internet connection, it should only follow that he sue his children into eternal debt (not before having Warner Music shut off their household internet connection at the ISP level). After all, what's good for the goose is good -- ah forget it. Every time we try to apply logic and reason to the executives behind the RIAA our brains do a zero divide.You, Bronfman! Monday at four o'clock, after school. Be there, punk.[Thanks, Josh]
