ATD: Gates, Ballmer and Sean Parker join Zuckerberg’s FWD.us lobby group

ATD: Gates, Ballmer and Sean Parker join Zuckerberg's FWD.us lobby group

Mark Zuckerberg showed he’s more than just a social butterfly earlier this month, forming the tech-focused political lobby group FWD.us alongside some other big names in the industry. Now, according to AllThingsD, a few more heavy-hitters have signed up to offer their expertise, including Sean Parker (Napster co-founder) and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Brad Smith. Not a bad crew to have on your side when technology issues are up for discussion, especially Ballmer — he’s notoriously good at getting his point across.

Update: This post has been corrected to reflect that the Brad Smith involved is General Counsel and EVP at Microsoft, and not Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

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Via: The Verge

Source: AllThingsD

Sean Parker and Lars Ulrich talk Napster vs. Metallica, hug it out with Spotify

 Sean Parker and Lars Ulrich talk Napster vs Metallica, hug it out

One of today’s many, many Spotify announcements was that legendary thrashers Metallica would be coming to the streaming service. As part of the announcement CEO Daniel Ek brought out the bands notoriously outspoken drummer Lars Ulrich and Spotify board member Sean Parker who, as you might remember, had a hand in founding Napster. While there was some broad discussion about the direction of the music industry and the future of music consumption, a large chunk of the half hour-long conversation revolved around the shared history of the two and the legal feud between the pioneering file sharing service and the band. The two were surprisingly cordial, if slightly uncomfortable looking, and delved deep into the details of what both described as a “street fight” between the parties. Ultimately, both admitted that things got blown out of proportion and escalated unnecessarily. But there also seemed to be some admission by Lars that there was an element of Luddism to his band’s reaction. To see the entire, extremely interesting conversation, check out the video after the break.

Continue reading Sean Parker and Lars Ulrich talk Napster vs. Metallica, hug it out with Spotify

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