What is the world coming to? Musicians everywhere are putting down their microphones/lip synching devices and squaring off against one another over the issue of punishing file sharers.
Following talk in Europe of disconnecting persistent file sharers from the internet, several artists, including Annie Lennox and Tom Jones, formed a group known as the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) and began to publicly oppose the major record labels' desire to punish individuals.(1) A rather brave move you would think and one that should have all major stakeholders (big labels, artists, government and consumers) reassessing their positions. In fact, in an ideal world this could have been the spark that ignited a flame of copyright reform.
Then along came James Blunt, whose soppy music and watery vocals would be enough to put out the Sun, and decided to throw in his two cents.(2) So now the debate has been obscured almost completely by the preening of various pro-Industry singers.
Lily Allen, the popular singer of "The Fear" and "Not Fair", showed her true colors when she piped in with a condemnation of file sharers, by plagiarising someone else's opinion!(3)
Essentially, the arguments on either side can be broken down into: Pro-Industry - every illegal download is equal to a lost sale and must be stopped at all costs because if no one ever paid then there's be no music by your favorite artist to listen to. Anti-Industry - the labels are being stubborn, downloads can do wonders for an artist when it comes to word of mouth publicity and severe punishment by the government of individuals just isn't groovy.
While the music world is divided today I'm sure that they'll all be best of friends again when it comes Christmas time and the world is looking for the next Charity Number One single. Until then, the final word has to go to Dan Bull. Watch the video. Amazing, something I would be willing to pay for online!
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