Pop icon Michael Jackson comes out against locking up music pirates
Pop superstar Michael Jackson on Monday hit out at a proposed new US law that would make the musical piracy on the Internet punishable by a possible jail sentence.
The self-styled “King of Pop” feels that, while he would like to see the practice of stealing music off the Internet stamped out, the legislation against the downloading of copyrighted material was too harsh.
“I am speechless about the idea of putting music fans — mostly teenagers — in jail for downloading music,” he said in a statement from his Neverland Ranch in the western state of California.
“It is wrong to illegally download, but the answer cannot be jail. Here in America we create new opportunities out of adversity, not punitive laws, and we should look to new technologies … for solutions.
“This way, innovation continues to be the hallmark of America. It is the fans that drive the success of the music business,” the “Gloved One” said.
Jackson’s spokesman in Los Angeles said the 44-year-old singer felt that lawmakers are tackling the problem in the wrong way in the proposed law.
US lawmakers on July 16 introduced into the House of Representatives the Authors, Consumer and Computer Owner Protection and Security law that makes illegal downloading of copyrighted materials a felony offence.
But while the illegal downloading of music does represent a major problem for the ailing industry, Jackson feels the solution proposed by the legislation is “absolutely inappropriate,” Backerman told AFP.
“He doesn’t want to see jails piled up with teenagers. He is proposing a win-win situation for both the audience and the music fans,” he said.
Jackson, who has seldom been out of the gossip pages this year amid a series of very public lawsuits against him, is himself a victim of the music industry’s declining fortunes that it blames largely on musical piracy.
His superstar image has waned since his 1980s heyday, with sales of 2001’s “Invincible,” which reportedly cost 30 million dollars to produce, pulled in only around five million dollars worldwide.
The US music industry blames the easy and free availability of download-able music on the Internet for plunging record sales which have prompted industry bosses to urgently seek to crack down on piracy.
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