Official Ares Free Download

p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Yesterday I ran an item deconstructing some of the comments made by UK alterate rocker Billy Bragg (right), now an unofficial spokesman for certain elements  of the UK music industry.

His views on file sharing came in an OpEd in The Guardian.

He’s a member of the Featured Artists Coalition who a recent meeting declared they’d »»»

overwhelmingly … support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional.

“Put the squeeze on users’ accounts?” – I said. “Terrific idea. It’d be particularly interesting to see how the ISPs target individual users, and then how they deal with them. Or would it be on a job lot basis — anyone X over the (predetermined) limit gets Bragged?”

The title of Billy’s The Guardian piece was ‘A better way to sink internet pirates’ and I suggested another way would be for him and his mates to stand up together against the labels and show them artists, at the least, understand the customer is always right because, “in the world of corporate music, music lovers are customers and absolutely must be treated with respect, not hatred and contempt”.

In a Reader’s Write, “Jon, ‘The customer is always right’ unless the customer wants everything you’ve made for free,” Billy responded. “Then different rules apply.”

Was it really Billy? Or someone pretending to be him?

Spoofers aren’t unknown on p2pnet. On the other hand, neither are genuine posts from people representing Google, say, or Microsoft, McAfee, or the RIAA, and individuals such as Mark  Cuban —-

—- so why not Billy Bragg?

“We’re not going to make any progress on forming the new business models if you have the record industry penalising fans on one hand and you guys making helpful suggestions like ‘Multi-millionaire corporate puppets should just shut the fuck up, maaaaan’,” he says, this being in response to Henry Emrich’s »»»

Multi-millionaire corporate puppets should just shut the fuck up, because every time they open their mouths on this topic, it just comes across as them being greedy douchebags. Stop being corporate puppets, and have some fuckin’ gumption. (Of course, that would require that they drop out of astroturf bullshit like the FAC, and actually start thinking.

“You want us to ‘have some fuckin’ gumption’, Henry?” – asks Billy, continuing »»»

Well stop telling us to shut the fuck up when we try to engage you in some debate about what the corporations are doing to the net.

The only way we’re going to change the way things are done is if artists and fans work together to build new models that give fans what they want and allow artists to earn a living from their recordings.

And what do you think that the FAC is, Jon?? It’s me and my mates standing together as artists to tell the label that their business model is fucked.

Artists, “must be prepared to work with the record industry and with legislators on a programme of education aimed at increasing awareness of the damaging aspects of illegal downloading on the livelihoods of the creative community and those who work with us to produce our work,” said Bragg in the OpEd.

“You mean indoctrination, don’t you Billy, adding intellectual property and copyright law to classrooms along with reading, riting and ‘rithmetic?” – I suggested — “Warping the minds of our children, even  those only five or six years old, twisting them and their perceptions to fit the false standards of the corporate movie and music industries, at the same time accusing their parents of being criminals and thieves?”

But, “The education I was talking about has to work for artists too,” says Billy in his p2pnet Reader’s Write, continuing »»»

Too many of them, especially the younger, newer artists, believe what they are told by their labels and managers about the ‘threat’ of illegal downloading.

They have to be coaxed into understanding that the internet is the greatest thing to happen to musicians since the invention of the gramaphone. For that to happen we are going to need some input from your community and support too. Because you’re right, there is no war between artists and music fans.

In his Guardian editorial, “The next step is to create ‘feels like free’ services,” said Bragg. “We need legal networks licenced by record companies that give users access to all the music they want for a subscription fee. We need P2P communities that spread the word for new artists while offering advertising platforms so that an artist whose work is downloaded can receive reciprocal payment from advertising revenue.”

“Feels like free” means it ain’t, I stated, and to that, “btw ‘feels like free’ doesn’t meant that you have to pay,” says Billy. “Commercial radio is free for you to listen to but we still get paid. P2P platforms could do the same kind of thing.”

And, “One last point to Robert — go onto our website http://www.featuredartistscoalition.com and check out the names of the people who signed up to the Air Agreement. I doubt you will recognise 20% of the names. The vast majority of FAC supporters are like yourself, just want to make a living doing what they love to do. Our challenge is to keep the net open to people like yourself, so that they can continue to make music on their own terms.”

This last was in reference to Robert’s comment, “What about real independent artists whom are not part of FAC because they are not on any label? Say I set up a secure GNU/Linux ’server’out of my old laptop. have it share songs I WROTE MYSELF and thus own ALL RIGHTS TO and share it, what’s to stop my account from being falsely closed down?”

Billy’s post is signed, “Billy Bragg, hotel room, San Francisco CA”

Billy, I’d like to chat with you about an idea I have. If that’s cool with you, please email at p2pnet @ shaw dot ca privately and in confidence telling me how I can contact you.

Meanwhile, as I post this, a fascinating discussion between Billy and p2pnet readers is still happening over at Billy Bragg solves the file sharing problem.

Related Articles

 Enjoyed this? Subscribe to the feed.