Bootlegger's Blues (and if that ain't a song title, it damn well should be !)
Just seen this on bbc.co.uk. A significant step forward ? The music industry corporates muscling ISPs to provide names and addresses of customers using file sharing programs like Kazaa.
Can someone explain to me why a music lover should be hounded by big business and the long arm of the law for the relativley innocuous downloading of music ? Alright, I know its illegal and perhaps, just perhaps, Madonna is selling a few less albums as a result (although I err to the 'crap album' scenario as the reason personally). But through all the years of arguing about the rights of users of ISPs to remain anonymous I never thought that the wall would be breached in the case of music file sharing. Stupid, naive, pillock that I am I thought ISPs would be forced to hand over such information in the case of Paedophiles, Necrophilliacs, Terrorists etc. Now maybe that is already occurring - I don't know, but if it is, its been kept very quiet.
Sledgehammer to crack a nut ? Are file-sharing programs undermining the music industry to the extent that the Corporates are claiming ? Remember they said exactly the same thing when cassette recorders acquired a decent level of reproduction. 'Home Taping is Killing Music' and all that.
In my opinion its the Corporates that are killing music. They have an inabilty to recognise original talent. They have an inabilty to upset the shareholders by supporting artists with vision that do not constantly return the faith with platinum albums. The industry is not run by music lovers but financial analysts and the like: the type who believes that a healthy (and frequently excessive) profit is more music to their ears than the latest from the White Stripes.
Their idea of investing in new talent is waiting to see which Independent Label can find the *Next Big Thing* and throw money at it. When it thinks it has found a cash cow, it buries it under a mountain of moolah. (Robbie Williams and Michael Jackson spring to mind).
I feel a musical revolution akin to Punk waiting in the wings. Here's hoping, because most of the *product* parading as art these days is precisly that ! I don't think ISPs dobbin in their customers will rescue the sorry state of popular music either.
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