PaidContent has a great set of notes from a monster debate between the heads of the Consumer Electronics Association, MPAA and RIAA at Midem in Cannes. The zinger comes when the RIAA rep accuses the CEA of making the entertainment industry look evil:
Bainwol said the CEA president, because of his pleas to abandon restrictions and liberalize fair use policies, sometimes resembled “a fringe, ideological leader”: “We are in a very, very significant transition,” Bainwol said. “Technology is the basis of our future. We have to be able to monetise product and, every time we try, you want to make it available for free so people can buy devices. Gary stretches the concept of fair use to the point where the notion of ‘fair’ has been eliminated. You have to protect the market value. [Gary] wants to morph fair use into a concept that justifies any consumer behavior to the point where you eliminate the value of property. Kids grow up not understanding that music and movies are intellectual property. You teach disrespect for intellectual property. Gary takes a concept, morphs it, makes us look like we’re evil.”
Shapiro countered: ”I don’t make you look evil – your lawsuits against old people around the country make you look evil. You’re very good at paraphrasing things I never said.”
(via Michael Geist)
