Record Labels Sue VCs For Supporting Napster
from the get-over-it dept
This shouldn’t really be a surprise (though, it certainly took them long enough). A few months back, some songwriters, realizing they were no longer raking in piles of cash from their old songs decided that, instead of actually understanding the market forces that have changed their business, they might as well sue somebody to make sure they could keep up their lifestyle. So, they sued Bertelesmann for actually (gasp!) supporting Napster and trying to turn it into a legitimate business. Now, realizing that those songwriters may have hit on something, the record labels are suing Hummer Winblad – the main VC firm that backed Napster, saying they “contributed to widespread internet piracy”. They might as well sue themselves for not understanding market forces and driving their own customers away. I’m still waiting for the day when the music industry sues “the internet” for contributing to music piracy. Clearly, the music industry is in the control of lawyers now, and doesn’t seem to understand how business actually works any more.
