Does the name Bennie Lydell Glover mean anything to you? There is good reason why you haven’t heard of him before, but there is a good chance he has affected your life. Do you remember when massive albums and hit singles were being leaked online weeks before the official release? Have you ever watched a movie in the comfort of your own home before it even hit theaters? Mr. Glover probably had something to do with it. Glover paved the way for online piracy. His mother to co-sign on his first computer that took 40 minutes to burn a CD, but eventually, Glover became the king of online piracy. Take a look at this in depth article by the New Yorker on how Bennie Lydell Glover, an employee at a CD-manufacturing plant, became the Patient Zero of Internet piracy.
The Man Who Broke the Music Business
Via newyorker.com One Saturday in 1994, Bennie Lydell Glover, a temporary employee at the PolyGram compact-disk manufacturing plant in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, went to a party at the house of a co-worker. He was angling for a permanent position, and the party was a chance to network with his managers. Late in the evening, the host put on music to get people dancing. Glover, a fixture at clubs in Charlotte, an hour away, had never heard any of the songs before, even though many of them were by artists whose work he enjoyed. Continue reading…
