Hilary Rosen
| Hilary Rosen | |
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Rosen in 2016
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| Born | 1958 (age 58–59) West Orange, New Jersey, U.S. |
| Residence | Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | George Washington University |
| Occupation | Communications and political strategist |
| Employer | SKDKnickerbocker |
| Known for |
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| Political party | Democratic |
Hilary Rosen (b. 1958) is an American communications and political consultant and pundit, and former head of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). She was a columnist for The Washington Post, became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of The Huffington Post, and has provided political commentary for CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC.
She worked for the RIAA for 16 years, including as chief executive officer from 1998 to 2003. Since 2010, she has been a partner and managing director at the public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker. She has been a registered lobbyist during her career, both at the RIAA and for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Rosen has been an advocate for LGBT rights since the early 1980s.
Rosen was born to a Jewish family in West Orange, New Jersey in 1958. Her father worked as an insurance agent and her mother became the city's first councilwoman. In high school, Rosen served as student council president. She earned her bachelor's degree in international business from George Washington University in 1981. Her parents divorced while Rosen was at college.
In 1979, Rosen began working as a legislative assistant in the Washington, D.C. office of Governor Brendan Byrne (D-NJ), who was a friend of Rosen's mother. She also worked for Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ) early in her career. Rosen worked for the lobbying firm Liz Robbins Associates in the 1980s.
In 1987, at the age of 28, Rosen joined the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the trade organization that represents the American recording industry, as its first government relations director. In 1989, she and her colleague Jay Berman updated the Parental Advisory label and launched its public awareness campaign. In 1992, she took a brief leave from the RIAA to serve as Senator Dianne Feinstein's (D-CA) transition director and set up the California Democratic Party's office in Washington, D.C. In 1995, Rosen supported artists' rights when Bob Dole (R-K.S.), then Senate Majority Leader, criticized Time Warner and said that rap lyrics promoted violence and were degrading to women. She became the organization's president and chief operating officer in May 1996, leading the organization during a tumultuous time for the music industry. Rosen was a strong supporter of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which became law in 1998, to prohibit the creation of technologies used to get around copyright protections. Rosen was promoted to the role of chief executive officer (CEO) in 1998. In 2000, the American musical recording company A&M Records along with several others, through the RIAA, sued Napster (A&M Records, Inc. v. Napster, Inc.) on grounds of contributory and copyright infringement under the DMCA. Rosen presided over the lawsuit, which caused the pioneering peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing Internet service to shut down. As the face of the RIAA, she was vilified by proponents of free file sharing, and even traveled with security at one point because she was receiving death threats. In 2002, she was promoted from president and CEO to chairwoman and CEO. The RIAA later sided with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who led a group of entertainment companies who filed a lawsuit against Grokster and Streamcast (maker of Morpheus) for inducing copyright infringement. In MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. (2005), the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the entertainment-industry plaintiffs, a decision Rosen supported publicly.
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