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"There's more brain drain going on over at Google, as John Furrier put it earlier this afternoon. We've reported on our fair share of leavings from the search giant, but this one is particularly puzzling, even for an auspicious day like today.\nGoogle's CIO Douglas Merrill is leaving to start as the new president at EMI, the record label giant. This bit of information was confirmed by folks that John Furrier knows close to the issue, however unbelievable it may be.\u00A0 It was so unbelievable, given that it's April 1st, that I gave him a ring to chat about it.\nThe story is true, and the purpose of his being brought in is to help EMI to attempt to come up with a new business model to survive the ever changing times.\u00A0 As we discussed earlier this year, EMI's earnings were so poor that they're considering significantly cutting funding to the organization that sues 12 year olds on their behalf, the RIAA.\u00A0 While ending support for the organization probably most responsible for the recording business's biggest black eye is probably a positive move in terms of extending big label's longevity, it isn't going to do the job alone.\nAs such, Douglas will have his work cut out for him, and despite a softening of EMI's position on piracy, we don't mistake that for a softening position on being evil - they're simply cutting the funding to the RIAA in an attempt to stop the sieve like leak of money from the company.\u00A0 The attitude that EMI has taken to the leak of this story to the blogosphere indicates that the Old Media attitudes are still alive and well.\nJust before I talked John regarding the story, he had spoken to folks that tried to confirm the story with EMI directly, and that EMI was flatly denying the story.\u00A0 John said that his sources within EMI were attempting to line up mainstream media exclusives for tomorrow with outfits like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, and were trying to quell the blog coverage so those relationships could be maintained.\nWhile that ship has likely sailed for them, it shows the present and persistent attitudes of EMI, and how diametrically opposed to the tenets of Google life they are. It really leads us to wonder exactly why Merrill is joining them in the first place - EMI is a failing company (I even predicted they'd be gone by year's end), a stuffy bunch of folks that hate their customers, and are arguably even evil (I mean, who supports suing 12 year olds but evil companies?).\nPerhaps Merrill just loves a challenge? He'll certainly have one there."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/04/01/douglas-merrill-emi/>