Nettwerk CEO Terry McBride: “RIAA's Victory Is A Step Backwards”

Authored by Jay Baage on October 4, 2007 - 1:12pm.

From Digital Music Forum West 2007 - Terry McBride, CEO and Founder of Nettwerk Music Group (who manages artists like Avril Lavigne and Barenaked Ladies) said that the first guilty-verdict in the 20,000-lawsuit strong campaign against illegal file-sharers is a step backwards for the music industry.

On Thursday, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) won the first of an historic campaign against illegal file-sharers and was awarded $220,000 from a 30-year-old woman (who file-shared 24 songs in question).

“I bet the RIAA is going ‘yes, yes, yes,’ but I’m like ‘no!’ You can’t sue your fans one day and then ask them to come to a concert the next day. A lot of these copyright lawsuits are done in the name of the artist (by the record labels), but the artists don’t want that (kind of relationship with their fans),” said Terry McBride.

He also spoke openly about his view that the record labels should drop any DRM-restrictions left on legal downloads immediately:
“EMI was the first label to understand that you can’t put restrictions on the part of the business that is growing, when there were no restrictions on the part of the business that is failing (the CD). All it takes is for someone to stick a CD into their computer and burn the tracks (from places like iTunes) and the DRM is gone,” he said.

Joakim Baage

Related Links
Verdict in First RIAA File-Sharing Jury Trial: Guilty

Published in DMW Daily, October 5, 2007

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Submitted by Bryan (not verified) on October 4, 2007 - 2:40pm.

Someone was video taping Terry's speech, as well as a few panel discussions from today. Was it you? Will you be hosting it in its entirety anytime soon? If not, do you know where I can find it. Great, great conference.