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American Morning

Minding Your Business: Music Downloaders Being Targeted

Aired July 29, 2003 - 07:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is big money in this, big business. Andy Serwer has been talking about this for months right now, huh?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes.

HEMMER: Your reaction to that.

SERWER: Well, it's interesting, you know, the gentleman was saying he's just a small fish; I just downloaded 300 songs. But you have to remember, that's 300 songs that some artist recorded that someone should get paid for. I mean, again, it's like I just walked into a drugstore and stole a couple of packs of gum. You know, it's not that bad. But, you know, if everyone was out there doing it, all of a sudden the Wrigley gum company is out a lot of money.

I mean, you know, obviously they're trying to deter people -- deter people from doing this. And the $150,000 per song, I don't really ever think that's going to happen, particularly to someone like him. They're trying to scare people.

Yes, in fact, there is one lady here they're going after her 14- year-old son, serving a subpoena to a parent. She said, "They're scaring the bejiminy (ph) out of me." I thought that was a town in Minnesota. And she said, "You bet your sweet potatoes" -- I love this language -- "That we would stop doing this." So, this kid lost his computer rights for the whole summer. The older sister is now scared she won't have money to pay for college.

So, you know, maybe a little bit of overkill here from the record business.

HEMMER: Well, you know, the thing that may have tipped him off, he said he is one of the original Napster users. He may have been on their list for quite a long time.

Quickly, talking about Bob Hope, you've got some business tie-in here this morning for us.

SERWER: Yes, here is a guy who was, you know, a giant in the field of entertainment. Obviously, we'll miss him. He was also a tremendous businessman in southern California. He made a lot of money, accumulated a vast fortune, primarily in real estate. He really was a real estate tycoon. He said at one point that he was the largest single property taxpayer in L.A. County...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow! SERWER: ... which is very interesting. He also invested in an oil well, had a company that sold TV sets, quality TV, and a driving range that he later sold to Universal which they turned into their back lot. He gave away some real estate to conservation societies, but he also ended up selling a lot to the Park Service as well.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Andy, thank you.

HEMMER: Thank you.

SERWER: OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.







Aired July 29, 2003 - 07:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: There is big money in this, big business. Andy Serwer has been talking about this for months right now, huh?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: Yes.

HEMMER: Your reaction to that.

SERWER: Well, it's interesting, you know, the gentleman was saying he's just a small fish; I just downloaded 300 songs. But you have to remember, that's 300 songs that some artist recorded that someone should get paid for. I mean, again, it's like I just walked into a drugstore and stole a couple of packs of gum. You know, it's not that bad. But, you know, if everyone was out there doing it, all of a sudden the Wrigley gum company is out a lot of money.

I mean, you know, obviously they're trying to deter people -- deter people from doing this. And the $150,000 per song, I don't really ever think that's going to happen, particularly to someone like him. They're trying to scare people.

Yes, in fact, there is one lady here they're going after her 14- year-old son, serving a subpoena to a parent. She said, "They're scaring the bejiminy (ph) out of me." I thought that was a town in Minnesota. And she said, "You bet your sweet potatoes" -- I love this language -- "That we would stop doing this." So, this kid lost his computer rights for the whole summer. The older sister is now scared she won't have money to pay for college.

So, you know, maybe a little bit of overkill here from the record business.

HEMMER: Well, you know, the thing that may have tipped him off, he said he is one of the original Napster users. He may have been on their list for quite a long time.

Quickly, talking about Bob Hope, you've got some business tie-in here this morning for us.

SERWER: Yes, here is a guy who was, you know, a giant in the field of entertainment. Obviously, we'll miss him. He was also a tremendous businessman in southern California. He made a lot of money, accumulated a vast fortune, primarily in real estate. He really was a real estate tycoon. He said at one point that he was the largest single property taxpayer in L.A. County...

SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Wow! SERWER: ... which is very interesting. He also invested in an oil well, had a company that sold TV sets, quality TV, and a driving range that he later sold to Universal which they turned into their back lot. He gave away some real estate to conservation societies, but he also ended up selling a lot to the Park Service as well.

O'BRIEN: Interesting. All right, Andy, thank you.

HEMMER: Thank you.

SERWER: OK.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.