Tag Archives: yahoo

Ian Rogers of Yahoo! Music has had enough of the shortsightedness of the music industry and he’s not going to help them screw over customers any more.

Last week, in a excoriating talk, he lays out his history of involvement with music on the internet, and exactly why their position to date has been ridiculous and petty.

Suing Napster without offering an alternative just seemed like a denial of fact. Napster didn’t invent the ability to do P2P, it was inherent in TCP/IP. It was like throwing Newton in jail for popularizing the concept of gravity.

…

I’m here to tell you today that I for one am no longer going to fall into this trap. If the licensing labels offer their content to Yahoo! put more barriers in front of the users, I’m not interested. Do what you feel you need to do for your business, I’ll be polite, say thank you, and decline to sign. I won’t let Yahoo! invest any more money in consumer inconvenience.

It’s heartening to see someone in Ian’s position taking this stand and saying “no more”. The question is whether the music industry is listening.

I suspect not.

Hat tip: Nat Torkington at O’Reilly Radar.