Ex-RIAA Chiefs Start Anti-Piracy Firm

By Ed Oswald | Published February 2, 2006, 1:06 PM

Two former RIAA leaders, Jay Berman and Hilary Rosen, announced Thursday that they were partnering to form an anti-piracy consulting agency. The two plan to focus on intellectual property protection, digital media technology, international trade issues and anti-piracy strategies.

Rosen is probably most well known for her stint as the chief of the RIAA during the height of the Napster battle, while Berman, also once chief of the RIAA, headed the IFPI during that same time. The combined effort would be called Berman Rosen Global Strategies, but the two said that it would act as a consultancy rather than a lobbying firm.

"Digital delivery and acquisition of entertainment is changing with lightening speed and so is the need to protect and promote the creative expressions that provide this entertainment," Berman said. "We can help guide businesses in the entertainment space on a variety of important issues such as licensing, public policy and anti-piracy tactics, both in the U.S. and internationally."

The two have developed a set of criteria with the help of economist Barry Massarsky that would help business and investors predict the impact of piracy on both acquisitions and investments where intellectual property is an issue.

"We have a unique combination of knowledge and experience," said Rosen.

Rosen had stayed largely out of the spotlight for the last two years after retiring from the RIAA, save for a few public comments including a May Web log post on the Huffington Post pleading with Steve Jobs to open up the iPod.

Berman has spent the last six years working with European and Latin American governments on piracy and market access issues on behalf of the international recording industry.

Comments

View comments by with a score of at least

Why would you hire 2 people that were heads of an industry where piracy is more rampant than anywhere else and they have bee completely and utterly useless at stopping it. These 2 have been part of the worst management and decision making in terms of anti-piracy that history has probably ever seen and they want people to pay them money to advise them on anti-piracy measures??? aaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I really need to get my hands on some of that RIAA weed! Holy sh!t!

Score: 0

|

ummmmm:-P RIAA weeeeeeed, ummmmm:-) i can almost smell it, I WANT SOME! fed-ex me a few pounds.

Score: 0

|

Stronger the darkside does grow

Score: 0

|

...

"Stronger the darkside does grow"

...

Don't despair ! The RIAA is -as we speak- marshalling the forces of Good and Light against the Evil Empire of File-Sharing.

...

The Computer Rodent

...

Score: 0

|

I can't wait till they release the first beta of their rootkit

Score: 0

|

...

"I can't wait till they release the first beta of their rootkit"

...

Good man !

It's the patriotic duty of ~every~ American to install an anti-piracy rootkit on their personal computer.

As the President of Sony recently pointed out: Most people don't even know what a rootkit is, why then should they object to one on their PC ?

Americans need to rally around the flag ! Digital piracy is thinly-guised Communism.

To paraphrase Patrick Henry: "Give me a rootkit, or give me death !".

...

The Computer Rodent

...

Score: 0

|

...

"I have no respect for the RIAA, therefore I have no respect for them"

...

Does this guy work for the Department of Redundancy Department ?

...

The Computer Rodent

...

Score: 0

|

I have no respect for the RIAA, therefore I have no respect for them.

Score: 0

|

Who will be their first customer?

Score: 0

|

They ought to use a bullseye for their logo; they'll have one painted on their front door anyway... I guess Target would probably sue THEM though...

Score: 0

|

dead to them ;o

Score: 0

|

We the pirates demand that copyrights and dmr are put to rest, or we will continue terrorizing the creators by copying* (not to ce confused with stealing**) their work.

** S: (v) steal (take without the owner's consent) "Someone stole my wallet on the train"; "This author stole entire paragraphs from my dissertation"

* S: (v) replicate, copy (reproduce or make an exact copy of) "replicate the cell"; "copy the genetic information"

MAKES YOU THINK

Score: 0

|

haha very nicely done.

Score: 0

|

...

It would seem that the forces in opposition to digital theft are multiplying.

We need ~more~ of the same:

Neighborhood block watches dedicated to patrolling streets and homes. Anybody overhears music playing ...demand that the person prove they paid for it !

Anyone caught without a receipt for their music to be immediately taken to secret prisons in Eastern Europe for "harsh interrogation techniques".

We got to nip this in the bud. File sharers are digital terrorists, and should be held indefinitely without trial or access to lawyers.

...

The Computer Rodent

...

Score: 0

|

Aaaarrrgghhhh....

Score: 0

|

aye!

Score: 0

|

Mark Russinovich on MinWin, the new core of Windows

The next version of Windows three years hence will likely build onto a significant architectural change implemented in Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.

Security firm: Windows patches not responsible for 'Black Screen of Death'

On second thought, maybe that access control list thingie with the lockdown something-or-rather didn't trigger an alleged, perhaps non-existent, pandemic.

My Windows 7 confession (and why you should confess, too)

I've held back the real reason for sticking with Windows 7, even as, gulp, iLife calls me to go back to the Mac.

Apple settles with Psystar except for 'circumvention devices'

The fracas with the Florida clone computer maker might have ended today had Apple not have muddled the issue over a cheap piece of Psystar software.

Google begrudgingly adjusts news crawling for paid publishers

If publishers want to make readers pay for news content, and thereby drive down its popularity and Google ranking, the company says, they can just go right on ahead.

Fee or free? Murdoch, Huffington square off over the cost of Internet news

Participants in an FTC workshop yesterday witnessed the two extremes of the Web news publishing debate, still centered on the issue of long-term profitability.

Microsoft denies latest 'Black Screen of Death' claims

After an anti-malware producer announced a fix to what it says is a swarm of recent KSoD problems, evidence of the swarm itself has yet to turn up.

Latest Firefox 3.6 beta fixes 133 bugs, promises faster page load times

A once-sluggish beta testing process has kicked into overdrive, with astonishing success at finding serious bugs. Will Mozilla be able to fix all the others in time?

Confirmed: Office 2010 to ship in June

Two weeks after Microsoft had been expected to draw a clearer roadmap for its principal applications suite, it's finally ready to commit to the end of H1.

New EU antitrust commissioner will oversee Microsoft, Oracle+Sun, Intel issues

As one of Europe's most prominent politicians shifts positions in January, her replacement remains a question mark over technology's biggest issues.

Without its own 'iTablet' yet, is Apple missing the boat?

Steve Jobs is on record as dissing "single-purpose" devices like e-readers. But given their recent popularity, was that a mistake?