Wes Phillips

Wired's Seth Mnookin interviewed UMG's CEO Doug Morris, who proves that record labels were even more clueless than anyone could have even imagined when it came to the changing landscape of the Internet.

"Morris insists there wasn't a thing he or anyone else could have done differently. 'There's no one in the record company that's a technologist,' Morris explains. 'That's a misconception writers make all the time, that the record industry missed this. They didn't. They just didn't know what to do. It's like if you were suddenly asked to operate on your dog to remove his kidney. What would you do?'"

Ummm, hire a vet, as Mnookin suggests? But nooooo—"'We didn't know who to hire,' he says, becoming more agitated. 'I wouldn't be able to recognize a good technology person — anyone with a good bullshit story would have gotten past me.'"