Universal Music Defends DRM; P2P Litigation
By Ryan Naraine
NEW YORK — Larry Kenswil, the president of Universal Music Group’s (UMG) eLabs unit, is defending the recording industry’s decision to use Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology alongside a litigation strategy to stamp out music piracy, arguing that the survival of the industry was dependent on copyright protection initiatives.
In a lively keynote presentation at the Jupiter Plug.IN Conference & Expo here Tuesday, Kenswil slammed pundits who have been “trying to dictate how to reinvent the music business” by encouraging the theft of copyrighted works.
“We are battling a nasty infection of image-itis. The tobacco company can kill us. The package food companies can clog our arteries. The oil companies can provoke wars. But, apparently, there’s no industry more despicable than the music industry. We are hated just because we refuse to acknowledge the public’s God-given rights to steal music,” said Kenswil, referring to the piracy epidemic that online file-sharing represents to the music industry.
The head of UMG’s new media and technologies division also had some choice words music industry executives who he said were more interested in fighting among themselves. “The bickering among record companies, publishers and retailers is impeding progress. We need to focus on making sure the pie is large enough to slice in a number of ways,” Kenswil added.
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