RIAA chief to step down

Ding Dong the witch is dead...Well no, not quite but the wicked witch of the RIAA has announced she will step down at the end of 2003 after 5 controversial years at the helm. Thanks to Kitkat for posting this one in BPN

Hillary Rosen has presided over a transformation of the organization that has matched the turmoil of the music industry since her ascension in 1998. Once a trade organization little known outside music and policy circles, the RIAA has become a household word known for its vigorous prosecution of online piracy, and its role as the nemesis of file-swapping services from Napster to Kazaa.

The outgoing chief executive said she wanted to spend more time with her family.

"This has been an extremely difficult decision, but I know it is the right one for my family," Rosen said in a statement. "Nonetheless, this is a critical time and I have much to do in the coming months. We continue to face unprecedented levels of online piracy as well as a changing market in physical piracy here and abroad."

During the past several years, Rosen has served as a focal point for all the criticism and complaints levied by advocates of unfettered technology. Indeed, she was featured in the most recent issue of Wired magazine as "The Most Hated Name in Music"--a bold statement in an industry notoriously rife with avaricious record producers and label executives.

She has been cast by her critics as an unswerving enemy of technology, an impression she has tried with little success to dispel by saying she did not oppose peer-to-peer or Internet technologies per se, but only their use to distribute music without permission.

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