From Coolfer, "The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, the king of gadget reviews, put some humorous, thoughtful questions to Sony's Sir Howard Stringer in yesterday's article."
"Mr. Mossberg: You own a record company.
Mr. Stringer: I do.
Mr. Mossberg: How's that going? How is it to own of the four big entrants in one of the stupider industries in the world...?"
Mr. Stringer: And it's not true that I beat my wife either ... I think you're right about the music companies. They are like all companies that are great and are doing things really well and having a fantastic time. They want the status quo to remain long after the quo has lost any status.
The record companies, remember, were not enthusiastic about the CD. They loved plastic and when the CD came along, they said, 'whoa, look -- windfall.' They were resistant to the digital world and in a way they forced Sony to try and create a music-download system that was utterly and completely secure, and that turned outto be a dream that customers didn't want. Customers drive everything now, not the product.
Mr. Mossberg: Well, on that theme, when is your next copy-protected CD coming out that will install, you know, malicious software? How did that happen?
Mr. Stringer: Actually, it didn't go so far. Computers did not crash. Big Ben did not stop. I'm not trying to blame sombody else, but this was an attempt to do the right thing at a low level. The senior management of BMG or Sony did not know this was going on. We responded very quickly and put out patches. ... We didn't say to ourselves as a company, we're going to screw every computer in town. We made a mistake and Sony paid a terrible price."
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