Hilary Rosen

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Hilary B. Rosen was the chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America from 1998 to 2003 and was the senior executive there for 10 years prior to becoming CEO.

Under Rosen, the RIAA advanced a legal and PR campaign to limit the swapping of copyrighted music, a practice whose popularity increased dramatically with improved personal computer multimedia capabilities and expanded broadband Internet access. Rosen was known as an effective spokesperson for free speech and the arts and defended rap and metal music from heavy fire regularly in public and in Congress. During her tenure, the RIAA achieved a number of legal victories in the United States, including:

The dismantling of the Napster and Audiogalaxy Internet file-trading services.
Passage of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
initiating the Grokster lawsuit on which the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the record industry
passage of the Performance Rights Act creating a public performance right for the first time for sound recordings
passage of the Record Rental Act providing additional rental protection for sound recordings
passage of numerous trade treaties providing increased protection for US intellectual property abroad
preventing legal and legislative restrictions on music content and free speech

Rosen also launched initiatives to encourage industry-wide standards of new digital copyright protection technologies, including copy protected CDs and a number of digital rights management-enabled media formats for personal computers. Copy-protected CDs have not been popular with consumers because they cannot be played in most car CD players or on PCs, and only a few pilot titles were ever distributed with the technology. Despite the RIAA's aggressive tactics, online file-swapping has continued to grow. Industry critics, including those within the Association, have begun to question the effectiveness of the campaign. Indeed, many believe that the RIAA's activities under Rosen's leadership alienated consumers and some popular artists from the very music industry the RIAA is supposed to protect. Nonetheless, while RIAA was the enforcement arm of the industry, the member companies were responsible for moving their businesses on-line. Many say that despite Rosen's public loyalty to the industry, much of her last few years were spent privately encouraging the member companies to embrace internet distribution. The slow pace resulted in her ultimate frustration and in the industry being unable to catch up with the phenomenon of free file sharing.

On January 22, 2003, Rosen announced that she would resign as head of the RIAA at the end of 2003, officially in order to spend more time with her partner, Elizabeth Birch, and the couple's twins (a boy and a girl). Rosen and Birch separated in 2006.

On November 30, 2004, Rosen became the interim director for the Human Rights Campaign, a leading GLBT lobbyist organization, following the ouster of Cheryl Jacques. Hilary's partner, Elizabeth, was the executive director of HRC for eight years prior to Jacques' assumption of the post. Since May 2005 she's been a contributing blogger at The Huffington Post and a consultant to companies in the media industry such as XM Radio, Viacom and Snocap.

Rosen recently founded a consulting firm specializing in digital media and the entertainment industry with Jason Berman, former Chairman of the International Recording Industry Association (IFPI) called Berman Rosen Global Strategies.

Rosen is a television commentator on politics on MSNBC and a contributor to MSNBC.com.

In January 2007, Rosen and business partner Ilene Chaiken, The L Word creator, launched OurChart.com, an online entertainment, blog and social networking site for lesbians and their friends. Rosen is President of OurChart.com.