Month: December 1998

“I felt like we were being, you know, leveraged.”

Walt Disney executive Steve Wadsworth, describing negotiations with Microsoft that left him feeling all funny inside, Wired News, 15 December 1998

“Several different technologies will be considered that look to create a distinction technically between a legitimate MP3 file and a non-legitimate file.”

Hilary Rosen, head of the Recording Industry Association of America, on efforts to outlaw free music downloads on the Internet, News.com, 15 December 1998

“Be, and the money will come.”

Futurist Watts Wacker, on the advice he gave Jean-Louis Gassee for negotiating with Apple, Upside, December 1998

“One reason we are in business with Infoseek and Starwave is to have people who will turn to us and say, ‘You guys are so old and so stupid.'”

Disney chairman Michael Eisner, on the gratuitous-insult synergies his Internet portal, Go.com, is generating, The New York Times, 13 December 1998

“Venture capitalists are a homogeneous, networked industry, where every deal is a referral deal.”

Catherine Muther, president of the Three Guineas Fund, on the thoroughly dairy world of high-tech startup finance, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 December 1998