via NBC press release:
CORY SHIELDS NAMED EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL POLICY STRATEGIES AND ALLIANCES, NBC UNIVERSAL
Appointment Will Strengthen Company’s Public Policy Advocacy Relating to Intellectual Property Protection
NEW YORK — June 15, 2009 -– Cory Shields has been named Executive Vice President, Global Policy Strategies and Alliances, NBC Universal. The announcement was made today by NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker. In this newly created position, Shields will play a key role in advancing NBC Universal’s global agenda for strengthening IP protection for the company’s content around the world as well as for continuing to build strong alliances with other IP-intensive industries, labor unions and other organizations focused on protecting jobs and growing the U.S. economy.
Shields will report jointly to Zucker and to NBC Universal Executive Vice President and General Counsel Rick Cotton. Shields has served since 2006 as Executive Vice President, Communications.
Said Zucker: “The lifeblood of a media company is its intellectual property, which is why I’ve asked Cory to take on this crucial challenge. It makes great sense to have a high-level communications professional wholly dedicated to our global IP agenda. Cory has the right mix of skills and experience to be a very effective strategist on this highly complex issue.”
Cotton added: “It has become clear that we need a senior executive who can serve as our dedicated communications strategist on IP issues, playing a role in formulating policy and in advancing our position with opinion-makers, the general public, unions and other allies around the world. Cory’s expertise in strategic communications and media relations will enable us to be even more effective in helping to shape government policies, industry actions, and public opinion as it relates to the enormously important and challenging mandate of bolstering IP protection, driving technological developments, and educating politicians and the public on the economic costs of digital theft and counterfeiting.”
Based in New York, Shields will work closely with NBC Universal’s global legal and government relations team in driving the company’s anti-piracy agenda both domestically and in key centers of government and industry in Western Europe, including Brussels, London, and Geneva. His mandate includes strengthening relationships with trade organizations, allied businesses, technology and consumer-electronics firms, and public interest groups and working with these allies to enhance public advocacy of our IP protection agenda. The creation of this new position represents the next step in NBC Universal’s industry leadership in working to strengthen IP protection around the world.
Shields was appointed executive vice president of Communications in June 2006, responsible for NBC Universal’s overall media and communications strategy and execution. He came to NBC Universal from SONY BMG Music Entertainment, where he served as senior vice president, Corporate Communications. Before that, Shields was chief communications officer and executive vice president at J. Walter Thompson. He joined JWT in July 2004 after seven years at NBC, where he served in a series of communications roles of increasing responsibility, including two years as senior vice president, Corporate Communications. He first joined NBC in 1997 as director, NBC News Media Relations, and was subsequently promoted to vice president of MSNBC Communications. He became NBC’s vice president of Corporate Communications in 2000.
A New York resident, Shields graduated from Fairfield University with a B.A. in politics.
So… Will they erase the other half of youtube clips now? :/
Intellectual property? Insert joke here. Those who remember Letterman’s first CBS show years ago.
So basically they want to crack down on illegal content in the hope to save them money.
Piss myself laughing!
1. You cannot possibly win against all torrent sites, or even uploaded content to various file hosts.
2. NBC has nothing worth stealing.
3. Another waste of money for a position that is essentially useless, way to go saving money there NBC.
4. With all that money that needs to go into this, would it just be more prudent to leave things as they are, thus saving time and resources or are they that spooked by the recession?
The best things in life are free.
Cruel_Heartless says:
“1. You cannot possibly win against all torrent sites, or even uploaded content to various file hosts.”
Perhaps not. On the other hand, it’s not clear that users of public trackers are generally aware that their addresses are entirely in the open. And a few smackdowns sometimes go a long way.
Utterly hopeless task this guy has. He would be better off if they made him VP of programming.
The more they crack down, the more they will lose.
Smack-downs? Hah! They’ve been trying that for years now, and guess what? Zero effect, plus they’ve lost at least as many cases as they’ve won and the publicity has been universally negative.
You cannot stop a black market except by legalizing it. Period. End of story.
Boris, hunny, a smackdown will only hurt them more. It will be a PR nightmare that would leave a very bitter taste in a lot of people. Greedy corporation vs the poor working class family.
What dream world are you livng in Boris? Pirated porn had a smackdown last year in the UK from a US company. It ended up costing them heaps of moula and guess what, perverts still download porn illegally. No effect.
Look at Napsta, they won the fight there, but lost the war. It will be the same with the TV industry.
Cruel_Heartless says:
“Boris, hunny, a smackdown will only hurt them more. It will be a PR nightmare that would leave a very bitter taste in a lot of people. Greedy corporation vs the poor working class family.”
The poor working-class Bittorrent family presents a public relations “nightmare”?
“What dream world are you livng in Boris? Pirated porn had a smackdown last year in the UK from a US company. It ended up costing them heaps of moula and guess what, perverts still download porn illegally. No effect.”
I’m not familiar with the smackdown to which you refer. I also don’t know what it has to do with my assertion that most people aren’t entirely clear as to how exposed they are when it comes to public trackers. Similarly, I’m not sure what you mean by “perverts.” It’s true that child pornographers seem to be busted a couple of times a month in my neck of the woods. Perhaps in my “dream world” this is “no effect.” Would it advance your position if it weren’t?
87690-011, err, Richard Steven Hack says:
“You cannot stop a black market except by legalizing it. Period. End of story.”
So you’re free and clear, then? Nobody to be concerned about proud digital larceny? (I’ve actually been trying to set the BOP number to “Ragg Mopp” by the Ames Brothers, but I’m not sure whether they were really Zionists.)
Wrong approach, they’ll end up destroying TV in much the same way as they destroyed Blu-ray.