Because even if ol' Hilary Rosen and the RIAA gang were the most tech-forward visionary, they would have still marched up against a wall. And that wall is their own industry.
You see, Griffin was attempting to relaunch Audiogalaxy as a licensed P2P. That was part of the university-focused, WMG- based Choruss initiative, though none of it worked out. Instead, an insanely complicated licensing patchwork proved not only unworkable, but not even approachable. “Unfortunately, nobody can offer this experience today because it is next to impossible in the current copyright environment," Audiogalaxy founder Michael Merhej recently blogged.
GigaOM has a great look at this—or a depressing look, depending on your perspective. Actually, a totally modified version of Audiogalaxy has been launched, and the irony is rich. Instead of a legalized file-swapping service surrounded by a monthly fee, Audiogalaxy allows users to access their personal collections from smartphones (and where did those collections come from?)
But the above-board path is actually worse than you think. “We couldn't even find half of the rights holders," Griffin told GigaOM. And that's only half the story.
Written... in silence. It's an on-the-road battery thing.
