AfterDawn: News

UK musicians agree, downloading music is not illegal

The Featured Artists Coalition, a group of 140 popular UK musicians, have said that they believe the public should not be prosecuted for downloading unauthorized music from file sharing services but did say they believe "companies such as MySpace and YouTube should be required to remunerate the artists when they use their music for advertising."

The musicians will take their concerns to Lord Carter, who has been a strong supporter of prosecuting pirates.



A few of the artists who showed up for the group's inaugural meeting were Robbie Williams, Annie Lennox, Billy Bragg, Blur's David Rowntree, Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, Pink Floyd's Nick Mason and Mick Jones from The Clash.

Bragg added: "What I said at the meeting was that the record industry in Britain is still going down the road of criminalising our audience for downloading illegal MP3s."

"If we follow the music industry down that road, we will be doing nothing more than being part of a protectionist effort. It's like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.

"Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment."

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 13 Mar 2009 3:44

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• 11 comments

• ZippyDSM

  I would take things a step further you will never have absolute control over distribution and if the industry is allowed to focus on any free aspect of it they will continue to assault the populace to gain power over them.
  
  So take free distribution off the table and focus on money direived from forms of profit based distribution IE ad sites for one donation sites for another. Non profit companies would be allowed to take donations.
  
  Of course this means trying to place a legal definition on search sites which I think could be as simple as primary first tier searches IE a site that directly links to a file that has access to the CP'd work.
  
  Google,ect would be exempt due to the primary focus of the search engine being pages,images not direct/indirect files themselves.
  
  The trade off is true free distribution can not be touched as it should not be in any free society.
  
  At the very least copy right needs to evolve from all forms of "trade" of a work to all profiting trades for a work.

  13.3.2009 05:06 #1

• DXR88

  Quote:It's like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.yes indeed, but it can be done very very carefully.

  13.3.2009 20:52 #2

• djgizmo

  The title of this news article is very misleading (shame on your AD)
  
  Artist know it illegal, and even want it to stop, however that don't want file sharing to be criminalized for the average joe.
  
  IMO, I believe those that are serving up more than 100GB of music on torrent/p2p networks should be prosecuted as its a blatent dis-regard for the law, vs downloading a song here or there.

  13.3.2009 21:12 #3

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by djgizmo: The title of this news article is very misleading (shame on your AD)
  
  Artist know it illegal, and even want it to stop, however that don't want file sharing to be criminalized for the average joe.
  
  IMO, I believe those that are serving up more than 100GB of music on torrent/p2p networks should be prosecuted as its a blatent dis-regard for the law, vs downloading a song here or there.
  No thanks as free distribution of goods should never be a crime of any kind, the illicit profit off goods however should always be a crime.

  13.3.2009 23:48 #4

• chrissd

  o.0
  
  Artists realise all the free publicity they get when a person dloads a song then proclaims it's awesome to everyone they know? *peers into sky* But no brimstone.. WHAT'S GOING ON!!

  14.3.2009 00:38 #5

• kiwi1

  I like this comment from Pat Smear (A musician who played with nirvana for the final 6 months)
  
  Pat Smear:I think that music should be free like when I was a teen and KMET would play new albums all the way through and I'd tape them. If I really liked it I'd buy it when I could. It's like they're afraid that if we hear the songs first, they can't trick us into buying them. They should make better records and they could stop worrying so much.

  14.3.2009 00:52 #6

• leady

  These group of people are really clever, really.

  14.3.2009 05:44 #7

• Gonzo1

  Kiwi1 has summed up file sharing with the brilliant quote from a band member of probably one of the best bands to emerge in this modern world good music will always sell whatever technology is out there to copy it rubbish will always be rubbish. Why should the music industry and the artists that produce rubbish be paid for it.

  14.3.2009 09:14 #8

• jpc1284

  im sorry but u cant stop piracy. although i have always said id gladly pay up to $15 for unlimited downloads for a month. you can easily get your moneys worth.

  14.3.2009 09:38 #9

• DVDdoug

  There's nothing stopping these musicians from giving away their music... Radiohead is doing it. Except, most of them have signed a contract with a record company! They've made lots of money from selling their rights to the record companies, and now they want to change the deal.

  16.3.2009 14:10 #10

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by DVDdoug: There's nothing stopping these musicians from giving away their music... Radiohead is doing it. Except, most of them have signed a contract with a record company! They've made lots of money from selling their rights to the record companies, and now they want to change the deal.Not with the contracts they have with the media mafia, they can't do much of anything. ^^

  16.3.2009 16:03 #11