Panorama

Same, tired old arguments.
Downloading ISN'T hurting the music industry. The music industry is hurting the music industry.
Releasing "formula" rubbish instead of pushing the boundaries... chronically overpriced, archaic business models, backwards thinking and so on.

Does downloading hurt creativity? No.
Does it hurt creativity if you define that as people making music for a living... maybe, but it's a VERY far fetched claim.

The wax cylinder didn't kill music... Radio didn't kill music... Home taping didn't kill music... Downloading is not, and will not kill music.

From the above comments I think you can probably guess what I think of the proposals.

Studies have shown that the vast, vast majority of "illegal" filesharers would not have bought the track/album if there was no way to get it free. It's not costing artists. IF you cut off all illegal filesharing right now - the music industry would not see any sort of significant increase in income. This is a law that will achieve nothing positive and so should not be passed.


The parallel drawn between electricity and broadband is absolutely terrible; and the idea of cutting off the connections of offenders is an appaling idea.
It's exactly analogous to banning someone from sending and recieving post because they've sent or recieved contraband, or cutting off their phone because one of their kids contacts their drug dealer that way. Terrible!

As it happens, I don't download... but I don't buy either as 99.9% of music doing the rounds is utter rubbish... and the bits that are decent are invariably overpriced.

Cutting off offenders is already in place in France.

I think you get one warning.

I'd be interested to know how you keep tabs on your kids or on who is using the office computer.

Not sure how much it's actually applied though.


Films don't come out on DVD here for 2 yrs after a film is released to encourage peeps to go to the cinema!

so you can see that they are already protecting their musicians and actors.

You can't keep tabs on your kids unless you actually want things like keyloggers and other monitoring software on your machine...
...more importantly you can't monitor what people outside your home do through your wireless and regardless of security settings - that IS an issue.

I'm not surprised France already has something - I believe "they" are one of the main driving forces behind moves to curtail internet freedom and restrict access in the EU. There was something in the European Parliament (I forget its name now) that the French were very instrumental in pushing for but for some odd reason voted against at the last moment. It was a while ago so I'm very shaky on the details but there was definitely something to do with cutting off access in there.

The thing that really stinks about it though - is the "guilty until proven innocent" element. The whole thing is slanted towards "You've done wrong." - "No I haven't!" - "Prove it!".

If there's any doubt how bad that situation is - try this...
Prove that you've never listened to (random band I know of from round these parts) Bluebird Kid Clark.
"I've just not!" doesn't cut it - you've got to evidence it.
Tough eh? Where would you even start?

Couldn't agree more with all you're saying Organic.

It's the Music Industry bleating because they're trying to preserve their empires and control.

Essentially, yes.

They aren't losing a penny. They are still making big dirty piles of money... but they are also becoming irrelevant and that's why they are making all this noise.

It's the exact same noise that was made when the printing press was invented, when recording was invented (and each time recording technology leaped forwards), when broadcasting was invented and now again in the digital era.

In every case the ones who made the noise lost a fortune and became irrelevant to some degree and the ones who embraced the change and formed new business models prospered.

The really interesting thing (and I think this is why they are pushing so hard for big clampdowns) is that the current "way forwards" for the music industry is actually akin to how it was in Beethoven's day. A writer writes for free and gets a reputation, then patron(s) pay them to write something new. The performer gets paid for performing and everyone makes a living.
In the Panorama video one of the "voices of reason" was saying they've released five albums under exactly that model.

The artist becomes a "live" performer exactly as they should be... the recorded work becomes a promotional tool... exactly like it should be and currently is in Brazil with Tecno Brega.

I like that the model used way back (and probably more so in the future too) leaves music creatives (writers, artists and the like) in the same boat as painters, sculptors and the vast majority of the working population of the world. They do work and they get paid for it, then do more work and get paid for that... rather than doing one thing once and living off it for the rest of their life... and their estate for a further 70 to 100 years!
That's exactly what the original intent of copyright was... to put creatives on a par with the rest of us!

Can you imagine a plumber getting paid for the work he did in your house every time you turn a tap or flush the loo?
Can you imagine the plumber suing your next door neighbour if you popped around and copied the work you'd done in your house so they could have good plumbing too?

I think the reason people don't seem to care about the recording industry and the artists who support draconian enforcement of an old, irrelevant business model - is not because they want music for free - but because the people they don't want to pay are completely out of touch with the real world! Name one other career where you get a good payment up front and then keep getting paid over and over again.

"If you can find 5,000 people, anywhere in the world, who are willing to spend £10 on you in the space of a year, you've got the basis of a carreer." - Billy Bragg.
If that doesn't put the recording industry's arguments into context nothing will.

If you can't find way more than 5,000 people worldwide to spend £10 on you in the space of a year - you've got no business making music for a living!

Irrelevance is scary for powerful people though.