Calls it an effort to avoid “dragging their customers though the courts, with all the attendant costs and bad publicity,” that they want a “simple, cost-free solution” to illegal file-sharing, and questions whether the music industry really has its best interests of artists in mind.
British singer/songwriter Billy Bragg has been a top spokesperson for the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), a group of UK-based musicians that includes Radiohead, Iron Maiden, Jazzie B, Jools Holland, Kaiser Chiefs, Kate Nash, Klaxons, Richard Ashcroft, Robbie Williams, Sia Furler, and many more. Though their main purpose is “the protection of performers’ and musicians’ rights,” the FAC has been very public of late in their defense of music pirates.
“It is time for artists to have a strong collective voice to stand up for their interests. The digital landscape is changing fast and new deals are being struck all the time,” said Brian Message, co-manager of Radiohead and Kate Nash in the coalitions first press release, “but all too often without reference to the people who actually make the music.”
The FAC is speaking out again via Bragg who wrote an article recently in the UK’s Guardian questioning whether or not the music industry really has the best interests of artists in mind as it tries to get ISPs to fight illegal file-sharing on its behalf.
The UK music industry is ratcheting up its efforts to force ISPs to institute a graduated response system – aka “three-strikes” – that will disconnect file-sharers from the Internet.
“Stating that a ‘write and sue’ policy will not work is an admission that the current copyright law is no longer fit for purpose in a digital age,” he writes. “The government has pointed out to the BPI that if it wants to crack down on unauthorized file-sharing, the law is already on its side. Fearful of the prospect of dragging their customers though the courts, with all the attendant costs and bad publicity, members of the record industry have come up with a simple, cost-free solution to their problem: get the ISPs to do their dirty work for them.”
Bragg points out that the plan is flawed for several reasons. He says not only is it “shameful” to force another industry to prop failings of your own in another, but also questions how it expects to stay ahead of technology if it’s never been able to do so in the past.
“Any unauthorized file-sharers who fear being caught out can simply encrypt their exchanges,” he adds.
So who’s to blame for illegal file-sharing? Bragg says it’s BitTorrent tracker sites like The Pirate Bay not individual file-sharers “that are really ripping us off.” The music industry needs to find ways to “monetise their behaviour” not discourage it.
The Internet Services Providers’ Association (ISPA), a trade association that represents ISPS in the UK alternatively argues that illegal file-sharing isn’t the real problem, that the creative industry’s failure to offer consumers legal alternatives is to blame.
“Internet companies remain extremely frustrated by the ongoing difficulties in securing licensing that is needed to offer consumers legal alternatives through new models of online content distribution,” the ISPA said recently. “It is our view that legislation on enforcement should only be introduced on the condition that the rights holder industry commits to significant licensing reform.”
The ISPA argues that content licensing reform is what’s really needed so that ISPs and copyright holders could develop viable, legal distribution alternatives to illegal file-sharing. Without them illegal file-sharing will always be prevalent. It calls the licensing process “complicated” and says that it’s the “root of the problem.”
At the end of the day Bragg, like most of us, realize what the music industry is really concerned about in all of this – distribution – and for good reason. That’s what record labels have always done. They’ve made physical albums and distributed them to music customers like any run of the mill manufacturing sector industry. With digital music they’ve been reduced to a bloated marketing and financing mechanisms for artists and they’re running scared.
“The question is, are the major labels too wedded to their old business model to be capable of leading the next generation?”
“It is all very well to claim that they have already transformed their business models online,” he adds. “Evidence suggests otherwise.”
Most would agree.
jared@zeropaid.com
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Good to see someone finally acknowledging what the music industry is really frightened of – the fact that they don’t have a place in any new business model.
Perhaps it’s time we considered the BBC funding model for the internet. If you have an internet connection you must pay a licence fee, which then entitles you to download anything you want from whoever.
A legal nightmare I know, but is there any other serious alternative that doesn’t involve the music industry either trying to take us back to the 80s or them trying to get laws passed that military dictatorships would be proud of?
he’s the man
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Wow, this seems like a change of heart for Billy Bragg over the last year.
As a confirmed socialist Bragg seems to siding with the establishment but I guess I dont blame him. He is part of the it. As a musician who has yet to get a record deal It seems ludicrous to be worrying about major established acts who gather substantial revenues from royalties and releases. When one considers the big earners i.e. labels and artists, the issue of file sharing seems insignificant. Record companies-the majors as they are known- have set up cartels to protect the copyright of their stable and their own bottom line. With software sharing you have one type of Intellectual property to consider. I believe that there is a perception that music should be free; that it is hardwired in the psyche. Bragg should look at folk music as the right model. Not a “business model” but a social model. We need to start looking at music as a social artistic “commodity” that should be free in the way it was in the days of folk music. Now that is really frightening. The creative commons model goes some way to recognising this aspect of free music. Being paid for a performance and maintaing legal ownership of the material that the artists creates is vital for a musician survival but sharing music either by taping LPs or buying CD”s and copying them for friends adds to the culture of creativity. Its really been criminalised. The problem is that that now there is now physical commodity. It’s like trapping ghosts. I’d love to make a living from my songs but really could not be bothered with the whole industry model. Hell, I’d be happy to have people copy and share my music and bugger the money as long as they were enjoying it and sharing it round. Come clean Bragg do you support the cartels or are you a real socialist? “Monetise their behavior” Sounds like some neo Adamite babble. I’ve been paid paltry sums for broadcast royalties but I would do it for nothing since it’s all about the art and not the cash.