Many would argue that it’s up to the record industry to somehow reconcile with new technology, like the internet, instead of fighting it. As if to reinforce the stereotype that the record labels just hate the internet altogether, a CEO from Sony pretty much said just that in a recent forum.
So what is the standard image that comes to mind when it comes to the average major music record label CEO? Grey hair? Overweight? Disgustingly rich? A passion to hate the internet or technology in general? Well, judging by a picture, at least two of those stereotypes were reinforced recently:
According to a quick report by WWDMedia, the CEO of Sony, Michael Lyton, had a few choice words about the internet recently:
The panel was about the future of filmmaking, but that didn’t mean anyone had to like what they saw. “I’m a guy who doesn’t see anything good having come from the Internet,” said Sony Pictures Entertainment chief executive officer Michael Lynton. “Period.”
At a breakfast cohosted by the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University and The New Yorker Thursday, Lynton wasn’t just trying for a laugh: He complained the Internet has “created this notion that anyone can have whatever they want at any given time. It’s as if the stores on Madison Avenue were open 24 hours a day. They feel entitled. They say, ‘Give it to me now,’ and if you don’t give it to them for free, they’ll steal it.”
Apparently, he seems to think the internet is for taking stuff for free or ’stealing’. It’s unclear whether or not he’s had the chance to see someone else’s rendition of what the internet is for, but there was a few other comments that were being made as well:
Lynton tried out another simile. Referring to the Obama administration’s goal to spread broadband access without, he said, regulating piracy, Lynton compared it with building highway systems without speed limits or driver’s licenses. “We do need rules of the road,” he said.
While this is mere speculation, it’s almost as if he was alluding to France’s recently passed three strikes law or a similar and related issue. Still, one wonders that if that was the case, where did such a comment come from? Did the Obama administration reject calls for the US to implement a three strikes law of their own? The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which is still being currently held as a national secret, had leaked documents last year that did address the concept of disconnecting people from the internet – while not directly addressing three strikes, still alluding to ideas such as the three strikes law.
We already know that the MPAA, to which Sony Pictures is a member of, certainly wanted Canada to adopt something like the Three Strikes law in December of last year. So it’s quite probable that the MPAA wanted the US to adopt the three strikes law at the very least, at some point in time.
Still, it doesn’t help very many arguments when you are seen suggesting that the internet is just some no good piece of technology. Then again, how many are surprised by this revelation at all?
Have a tip? Want to contact the author? You can do so by sending a PM via the forums or via e-mail at drew@zeropaid.com.
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With all respect, it shocks me how naive some of you are regarding the internet. The Internet was implemented to alter the way humans communicate so that these “communications” are easier to monitor and manipulate and anyone who thinks otherwise is retarded. The people responsible for the internet knew that people would go nuts for it, and knew how hard it would be to get off it. At the risk of sounding like a troll, I have a hard time thinking of something I do on the internet which is not more pleasurable when done in real life. (photography, sex, watching movies, listening to music, etc.) We should be trying to wean ourselves of the internet instead of going deeper and deeper into it. I actually hope the net goes away at some point when people long for real interaction and real activities again.
@Mike
Nothing so sinister.
The internet as we know it was created in several stages: First by DARPA as a way of improving communication between RADAR and other automated systems to counter Soviet technological advances such as Sputnik, Second by Educational Institutions to move research data between labs across the country, Third by businesses to increase productivity, Finally by CERN (Tim Berners-Lee especially) who overlayed the technology with a standards for GUIs (e.g. Hyperlinks).
While some people envisioned the potential of the internet it was all about facilitating communication and moving data, not to centralize information in an easily viewable way. In fact much of the early internet was decentralized.
The internet has ushered in new paradigms for the social dynamic. Some can be dealt with though analogy, but others require deep introspection to clarify what is right and wrong. The machines just move the data how it is used is up to the man in the chair.
I think Sony’s opinion is just jaded because of all the “losses” they’ve received from it. Either that, or he was just discussing the internet as a file sharing device, and not about all the other things it does. If he really is that naive about the benefits of the net, then some one is going to need to kick him out of his chair, pronto.
Wait wait I got one.
Sony, nothing ever productive or useful has come from it.
And we can all be absolutely sure that “unregulated” broadband spreading throughout the country will claim just as many lives in gruesome, violent, bloody accidents, just as a highway without a speed limit would. Sony says so.
And how in the world does your board members keep a CEO with that kind of outlook in power? But I suppose to get to that point you have to be the best at shoveling BS down others throats.
Wow, this guys applicable for biggest douche in the universe contest, he has douche written all over his face!
I am studying to be a medical doctor. I have a collection of only about 8 or 9 text books. I say *only* because I very regularly find that this is just not enough. No one book covers everything, and no two books explain the same idea in the same way. Having access to large quantities of data and information on the medical sciences is quite simply essential to my development as a future MD. Now, of course I *could* just set up shop in my university’s library However as a married man I quite like the idea of being home with my wife as much as possible whilst I can afford it. Without the internet this would be IMPOSSIBLE. So, filesharing, social networks, online shopping, email and online video content aside, I am grateful for the internet and I look forward to the unseen benefits it will bring to our lives.
Mike, I agree about “real” interaction to an extent – sometimes “unreal” interaction is all you have. Should I stop email/facebook/skype-ing (the only way I can interact more than once every 2-3 years) my parents just because it is not “real”? Society is going in a certain direction, you can either rile against it and become a grumpy old man or you can embrace/accept it and be curious about how its going to turn out. The latter option also has the added benefit of less stress and therefore less likelihood of having a coronary.
One day the internet may very well bring tyranny but for now I am taking advantage of the greatest amount of liberty and freedom afforded by one of our world’s greatest wonders.
A bit of incendiary audaciousness in public speaking is a necessary tool, unless you want your audience to be bored to death.
Obviously Lyton was referring to the very real copyright infringement and piracy issues that his motion picture division faces, and has faced to some degree, since the invention of consumer based video tape technology.
But in terms of creating, marketing, and distributing Sony’s product, the “internet” as actually driven prices radically down, and make those efforts exponentially more effective.
Any business entity involved in profiting from the sale of the fruits of intellectual and creative labor (Music, Movies, Books, Etc) is certainly in the midst of an evolution in the way their respective businesses are structured. Perhaps Lyton is just expressing his frustration of being in the position of always have the sands of change shifting under his feet, instead of being firmly planted on some kind of solid ground.
Unlike the music industry (whose product is soley dependent on “personal use”), the film industry still has the proverbial ace up its sleeve. Nothing replaces the experience of sitting in the dark in a crowded theater.
I just saw “STAR TREK” in a multiplex last night…it was showing every half hour on multiple screens in an economically depressed market in upstate NY….and was completely sold out, all night long.
Even with the advent of DVDs, Flat Screens, and 7-1 surround sound in your living room, if you give the people what they want, they’re going to get off their butts and buy your product….and THEN buy your DVD release, or order it on demand from their cable company.
It’s a wild and woolly internet (and broadband access) that provides these extra avenues for marketing and monetizing Sony’s product.
I suggest that Lyton enthusiastically embrace this fact, and then go out and compete in the marketplace to the best of his and his company’s ability, instead of whining like a petulant child who just had his lollypop stolen.
“Many would argue that it’s up to the record industry to somehow reconcile with new technology”
Agreed, but Lyton heads up the motion pictures division…..sloppy logic, sloppy blogging DrewWilson
I hope SONY will be running out of business pretty soon
Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton is a blind man driving a car in circles, an ignorant wealthy man who only cares for the dime, a man who has no vision.
Sony never has shown fairness to competitors and developed standards which had solely served their own business.
The internet stands for communication, socialization, communities and a far better way to distribute information than any medium these days.
TV as it is, is dead. Younger generations are not willed being settled onto a 24/7 timed and predefinded program anymore.
Michael Lynton, please give yourself a head.