Reactions to the Rosen MIDEM speech in Wired:

Ferrell also raised the privacy issue, albeit in a more personal fashion.

"Well, Ms. Rosen, I'll tell you what: You forward all your e-mail unedited to a public mailing list, scan and post all your private written correspondence to the same list, give us all-read access to your hard drives and post 24-7 webcams in your boudoir and bathroom, and then I'll believe you understand the invasion of privacy your shrill insistence on flushing what's left of the Constitution down the toilet entails," Ferrell suggested.

....Sources at the conference said that reaction to Rosen's keynote was primarily favorable, although there is a "small growing sense" that escalating enforcement action could lead to a backlash.

"It's horrible. Anything we can do that's effective will seriously annoy our customers," said one industry official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"I think we might need to stop fighting fire with fire and figure out something new to do, or we will end up with lots of ex-customers who swap files just out of spite."