Former RIAA chief joins board of P2P file sharing company

Saratoga Springs (New York) - In the clearest indication yet that the recording industry may be prepared to drop its objections to peer-to-peer networking as a technology, Jason Berman - who for nearly 13 years headed the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) - has joined the board of directors of Wurld Media, the company behind Peer Impact, the most prominent distributor of licensed multimedia content over P2P.

In a statement released yesterday by Wurld Media, Berman said, "Digital distribution has forever changed the way that consumers discover and purchase their music and other entertainment content. Peer Impact has been at the forefront of providing users with a legal way to share that content. I am very pleased to be joining a team who is committed to creating the future." Berman currently serves as Chairman Emeritus of IFPI, a consortium of recording companies worldwide that support anti-piracy causes.

Wurld Media made news last July, just prior to the launch of Peer Impact, when its CEO, Greg Kerber, testified before the Senate Commerce Committee as the sole representative of the pro-licensing side of the P2P industry. There, Kerber addressed senators’ concerns over the nature of P2P, defending the technology while promoting the use of business models to entice music publishers, and to grow a new industry. Peer Impact has since quickly garnered the support of the four major publishers, and a great many independent publishers and labels.

In his company’s statement yesterday, Kerber said that Berman "served on the front lines during the birth of the file-sharing revolution, and we are fortunate to gain his insight as we continue to build the file-sharing model of the future."

Wurld Media’s announcement comes one day after a decision by Grokster - the company whose historic defeat in the US Supreme Court sparked July’s Senate hearings - to shut down its file sharing service.