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American Morning

Facing the Music

Aired June 26, 2003 - 08:35   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.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Music pirates beware, the recording industry is out to make you walk the plank. The Recording Industry Association of America says it will sue computer users who are sharing large amounts of copyright protective music online. The first lawsuits will be filed as early as mid-August. And joining us to talk about the downloading crackdown is Toure, who is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine.
Good to have you back here, Toure.

TOURE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right. First of all, when they say they're going after people who are downloading a lot of MP3s, what's a lot, and how are they going to find them?

TOURE: Well, I mean, you know, there are ways of finding people through the Net. I mean, if you are the biggest downloader in your school, you may be worried. You know, and you should be worried, because they want to find you, they want to make an example of you, and it's a very dangerous issue for the record business, because there are holes in the bottom of their ship, they're losing money, they're not doing well. Nobody can say for certain how much downloading is having an exact impact on this, but the generational issue of embarrassing thousands of kids and impoverishing them could be very dangerous for the record business, and create a situation where they are looked at this evil giant.

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, it is, in a sense, declaring war on your consumers. Of course, but these...

TOURE: And your prime consumers.

O'BRIEN: But it's more like declaring war on shoplifters, which go in your store, and we accept those kinds of constraints.

TOURE: Right. But the way you do it has got to be proper. I mean to have 15-year-olds on CNN and in "Rolling Stone" saying, I have a $30,000 bill now because I have downloaded a company of songs, which is not exactly the issue, but you know, if you have a shoplifter who's taking stuff from your store and you beat them up in front of the store publicly, you're going to look really bad.

You know, and one of the things that's being lost in this is that it feels like stealing from the rich, but it's really not. Most record -- recording artists not that rich. Probably most rappers and singers are not that much more rich than your average middle class dad. So if you think this guy is the same as where I'm at financially...

O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, it's obviously a tactic that is fraught with peril, and obviously indicates desperation time for the recording industry. Is there some kind of technological silver bullet out there that's going to get them out of this mess?

TOURE: You know, I don't know. That would be a positive solution for everybody, rather than have their record business come down like this monstrous goliath crushing these kids. I mean, this is a very bad look for the record business.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and there's a whole generation of kids who see music as something they're entitled to for free.

TOURE: Well...

O'BRIEN: Right? I mean, it's true.

TOURE: I mean, it's stealing. I mean, there's no two ways around it. The thing is, it's no different than what you or I probably did when we were kids, tape a song off the radio, dub an album for your friends. But the technology makes it so much bigger and such a grander scale.

O'BRIEN: And wait until becomes easier with movies. That's coming to a theater near you. Toure, good to have you drop. Appreciate your insights.

TOURE: Thank you.

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 June 26, 2003 - 08:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Music pirates beware, the recording industry is out to make you walk the plank. The Recording Industry Association of America says it will sue computer users who are sharing large amounts of copyright protective music online. The first lawsuits will be filed as early as mid-August. And joining us to talk about the downloading crackdown is Toure, who is a contributing editor for "Rolling Stone" magazine.
Good to have you back here, Toure.

TOURE, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, "ROLLING STONE" MAGAZINE: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: All right. First of all, when they say they're going after people who are downloading a lot of MP3s, what's a lot, and how are they going to find them?

TOURE: Well, I mean, you know, there are ways of finding people through the Net. I mean, if you are the biggest downloader in your school, you may be worried. You know, and you should be worried, because they want to find you, they want to make an example of you, and it's a very dangerous issue for the record business, because there are holes in the bottom of their ship, they're losing money, they're not doing well. Nobody can say for certain how much downloading is having an exact impact on this, but the generational issue of embarrassing thousands of kids and impoverishing them could be very dangerous for the record business, and create a situation where they are looked at this evil giant.

O'BRIEN: Well, I mean, it is, in a sense, declaring war on your consumers. Of course, but these...

TOURE: And your prime consumers.

O'BRIEN: But it's more like declaring war on shoplifters, which go in your store, and we accept those kinds of constraints.

TOURE: Right. But the way you do it has got to be proper. I mean to have 15-year-olds on CNN and in "Rolling Stone" saying, I have a $30,000 bill now because I have downloaded a company of songs, which is not exactly the issue, but you know, if you have a shoplifter who's taking stuff from your store and you beat them up in front of the store publicly, you're going to look really bad.

You know, and one of the things that's being lost in this is that it feels like stealing from the rich, but it's really not. Most record -- recording artists not that rich. Probably most rappers and singers are not that much more rich than your average middle class dad. So if you think this guy is the same as where I'm at financially...

O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, it's obviously a tactic that is fraught with peril, and obviously indicates desperation time for the recording industry. Is there some kind of technological silver bullet out there that's going to get them out of this mess?

TOURE: You know, I don't know. That would be a positive solution for everybody, rather than have their record business come down like this monstrous goliath crushing these kids. I mean, this is a very bad look for the record business.

O'BRIEN: Yes, and there's a whole generation of kids who see music as something they're entitled to for free.

TOURE: Well...

O'BRIEN: Right? I mean, it's true.

TOURE: I mean, it's stealing. I mean, there's no two ways around it. The thing is, it's no different than what you or I probably did when we were kids, tape a song off the radio, dub an album for your friends. But the technology makes it so much bigger and such a grander scale.

O'BRIEN: And wait until becomes easier with movies. That's coming to a theater near you. Toure, good to have you drop. Appreciate your insights.

TOURE: Thank you.

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