/ Cory Doctorow / 7:49 am Fri Sep 4, 2009

British musicians -- Paul McCartney, Elton John et al -- speak out against disconnecting accused infringers

Paul McCartney, Elton John and other prominent British musicians have spoken out against the government's ridiculous proposal to disconnect people who've been accused of infringing on copyright from the Internet, calling it 'expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".' Damned right. Cutting entire families off from access to e-government, health information, work, education, friends, family, and freedom of expression freedom of assembly and freedom of the press because someone accused one member of infringing copyright is terrible.

The UK government's own research shows that households without Internet access operate at a huge disadvantage, paying more for basic necessities than online counterparts -- everything from premiums on their phone- and gas-service because they can't opt for electronic statements to missing out on jobs and other opportunities. To treat the Internet as a luxury item that can be taken away from whole housefulls of people because one member has been accused of a civil infraction flies in the face of justice, proportionality and due process. Civilised countries don't engage in collective punishment.

In a statement seen by the Guardian, a coalition of bodies representing a range of stars including Sir Paul McCartney, Sir Elton John and Damon Albarn attacks the proposals as expensive, illogical and "extraordinarily negative".

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (Basca) and the Music Producers Guild (MPG) have joined forces to oppose the proposals to reintroduce the threat of disconnection for persistent file sharers, which was ruled out in the government's Digital Britain report in June.

The plans have already been attacked by privacy campaigners, internet service providers and a range of MPs, some of whom accuse the business secretary of being influenced by secret meetings with senior figures from the music and film industry, a charge he denies.

The coalition accuses the government of being backward looking, saying there is "little support from logic" in proposals to cut off file sharers - a move welcomed by the record companies and UK Music, the umbrella body for the entire industry.

The statement says: "We vehemently oppose the proposals being made and suggest that the stick is now in danger of being way out of proportion to the carrot. The failure of 30,000 US lawsuits against consumers and the cessation of the pursuit of that policy should be demonstration enough that this is not a policy that any future-minded UK government should pursue."

YouTube and PRS make peace as musicians protest about plans to punish file sharers
Previously:

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  2. The politicians responsible for this don’t understand the Internet. They don’t use it. They probably have someone on staff who knows how. They are, in a word, old.

    I know I’m engaging in ageism here, and there are many fine examples of aged Internet users who will respond to me, but the reality is that the older you are, the less likely you are to understand how to use the Internet. It follows that you would be less likely to understand the impact of it.

  3. This legislation will never happen…it’s just one of those ‘thought up in the back of the car on the way to the press conference’ brain-farts that will be familiar to viewers of ‘The Thick of It’…

  4. Nice troll, Cory@~2. It doesn’t take much understanding of the internet to know this proposal is BS. Kudos to them for speaking out against it instead of leaving it to the kids to sort out. They have a lot more power in the industry than the young whippersnappers, and together represent some of the largest single holders of market share in the music industry of the UK.

    So don’t you listen to what the man says…

    Someone save someone save someone save my rights tonight…

  5. I think the best thing that could happen to the media industry would be to see these “associations” disbanded.
    I have never, ever heard anything good about them and the sooner they die off like the dinosaurs they are the better for all concerned.

  6. These associations make perfect sense, in the calculus of Dilbert. People want to work in some industry, for whatever reason. They get hired, but prove not to be effective, while never committing a big enough sin to get themselves fired. The ones who are status-orientated are quite willing to be “seconded” to the industry association when it’s suggested. There, it’s put to them, they can “use their experience to the benefit of the industry as a whole”, a rather nebulous idea, but which crucially gets them out of the hair of the somewhat more competent people who are actually running the company.

    Until recently, such industry associations did little harm, and would occasionally do something useful for their industry. But the Internet allows you to make a fool of yourself worldwide really rapidly, as they’ve been demonstrating. They don’t realise it, because – in a classic causal error – they feel that people with suits, plush offices and lawyers are always wise and competent, so if they have those things, they must be wise and competent too.

    So it’s another facet of the Dilbert principle. The basic version of that states that idiots are selectively promoted into management; this corollary asserts that industry associations, which employ managerial types without risking giving them anything to manage, thus collect the most useless of managers.

    The fact that the companies who belong to these associations haven’t tried to rein them in says a lot about their own ability to adapt to the world of the Internet, and their willingness to trust others with matters they know little about. Little of what it says is good, however.

  8. Ya know, this is an excellent example of the idea of Sharing. Henry Rollins said a few years back, “I’d rather have your time than your money.” I personally wouldn’t listen to John or McCartney much, except that Netflix has some GREAT concerts that we enjoy on a regular basis. Cory, I appreciate all this coverage about the greatest fight of our digital lives.

    I tried to get a system with Blu-Ray working recently, and I can’t tell you the hoops I had to jump through to get the “play file from folder” feature to work. Virtual drives? Goodness are we ever going backwards!

    People, it is your solemn right & duty to seed your torrents and spread the wealth. I guarantee that David Byrne, Thom Yorke, Elton & Paul are going to be just fine, on down to the littler guys like Bon Iver whose set we torrented from Glastonbury and now we have tickets to his show at the Fillmore!

    There’s only one phrase we need to keep in mind: KEEP ON ROCKIN’ IN THE FREE WORLD! We will prevail here, because the music & the love truly does want to be free. That’s the feeling I get when I listen to a classic tune by any of the above artists. BOOYAH!

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