Music Piracy

As this is supposed to be a music review site, I don't normally get involved in news about the music industry but the subject of music file-sharing has come up again and I want to add my two pence, at it were.

This story is on the BBC website. The main focus is on a deal between the music industry and ISP providers to tell people that they are sharing music illegally. As if they don't know! Apparently teenagers (unfairly singled out imo) have an average of 800 stolen songs on their mp3 players. This is the key here. Stolen. It doesn't matter if someone else has posted the music, if you take it from a site, from someone who isn't authorised to do so, it is theft.

This part of the story is amazing:

One BBC News website user Mark, from Hampshire, said he downloaded and shared files illegally and argued customers were "getting their own back".

In an e-mail, he said: "I used to run half a dozen record shops in the 80s and saw how far the fat cats of the record industry would go, in milking customers and retailers dry with more hyped rubbish."

"Why should I yet again pay for, say, the Beatles' White Album at full whack? I already bought it on LP, eight-track, cassette, and CD! This is those customers getting their own back."

"So will this make me sharing a CD with my next-door neighbour over the fence illegal?" he added.

I cannot believe that this guy thinks he is some kind of music vigilante in some well deserved fight against artists. And he really doesn't know the answer to the last question? It is quite simple, if you buy a CD, it is yours to own and listen to. Every CD you buy (typically) has the following text stamped on it: "Unauthorised copying, broadcasting, public performance , hiring or rental is prohibited". Okay so some of that is open to interpretation if you get picky but since 'rental' can take place without any fee, the answer to the question is most definitely "No, it is ALREADY illegal". One copy, one person. It is that simple. If he plays it in his garden and his neighbour hears it, it is illegal. You can't even copy your own CD and put it on your mp3 player! I am constantly amazed at this law and the fact that most people don't know it.

As a music fan, this is something that is very close to my heart. Yes we all 'borrow' music from time to time but doing so on a mass scale and then promoting that practice by uploading music to file sharing sites is destroying the industry. I have just heard a guy on the radio claiming that he always downloads music illegally. One example was a CD that he owned on vinyl, which broke, then on CD, which he lost. So he has already given the artist the money so he download it for free. Right? He then went on to say that bands like R.E.M. have loads of money anyway and music is now just a hobby. At this point I wanted to take a sledgehammer to my radio. He claimed that because he didn't share the music with anyone else he isn't a pirate. Sharing involves two people. He is.

As the next caller on the radio show said, it is ignorant lazy and abhorrent people (my words, not his) like this who are killing art for the rest of us. And music is art. The artists (mostly) spend huge amounts of time and (mostly) use considerable effort and talent to make music. They do it because us mere mortals cannot. And I refuse to believe that anyone will download an album to 'see what it it is like' before handing over their cash. When you have it in your possession most won't buy a 'proper' legal copy. Then they will say "But I don't listen to it that much" or "I only like one or two tracks". Now that you can buy individual tracks, this is no excuse. It's bullshit.

Just to end this little rant, there is talk of compensating artists in an attempt to offset the monies lost from music piracy. So everyone with broadband and/or a mobile phone will pay an extra 20-30 quid a month for their service to pay for idiots who steal music. I agree that we need to sort this problem out but this is the maddest idea I have heard for a long time. In this changing age of technology, industry and the law needs to be one step ahead of criminals and that is difficult. Like with all fraud, you need to have acceptable losses. Charging everyone for other people's indiscretions is not the answer.

It is time people understand the law, whether we agree with it or not. Ignorance or hypocrisy aside, you cannot be a music fan if you steal what you claim to love.