Month: May 1999

“You can make more money in the new era of ‘free’ digital music. But only if you break free of label mind control.”

Multimedia pioneer and global village idiot Jaron Lanier, explaining to his fellow artists how much better life was after he ripped out the control implant used by the men in black to send him secret messages, The New York Times, 10 May 1999

“At the end of the day, we are a pure Internet company.”

America Online president Bob Pittman, on the reasons why AOL assured its irrelevancy by hanging back from the broadband access wars, The New York Times, 7 May 1999

“One of the saddest things that ever happened in Silicon Valley is the demise of Netscape.”

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, on the tragic increase in stock price wrought by the acquisition of Netscape by America Online, News.com, 6 May 1999

“New media are by definition transactional. We need to work more closely with advertisers and marketers to create content that meets their needs. We must develop new ground rules.”

New York Times chairman Arthur Sulzberger, on the need to discard old standards of newsroom independence to further business goals — like the recent series of hit pieces on Amazon.com that neglected to mention that the Times was in bed with Barnesandnoble.com, MSNBC.com, 5 May 1999

“I’m often surprised by investors who spend more time deciding what movie they’ll rent than on which stock to buy.”

Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt, delivering a criticism of online traders that shows he hasn’t been to a video store lately, Wired News, 4 May 1999