Official Ares Free Download

p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- When Billy Bragg and I started a2f2a.com, we intended it to be both an advocacy site, and a channel through which musicians could talk directly to fans, and fans could talk directly to musicians.

We thought we were being optimistic when we tentatively slated it for a December launch. However, it’s been online for a month, now, and it’s forging ahead with the tenet  musicians want to be paid, and fans want to pay them, as the cornerstone.

“The British Government’s Digital Economy Bill will be debated by Parliament within a few weeks,” says Billy in an a2f2a post, going on »»»

This is the legislation which will mandate the ISPs to cut off internet users who download illicit files.

I am not going to go into all the ramifications for individual liberty as they are well known to everybody here. What I do want to know is whether or not we want to take our complaints about this nasty piece of legislation beyond this blog?

I was recently invited to come and have chat with a friend of mine who used to be a professional musician and is now a Member of Parliament. He wanted to pick my brains about p2p. We had a long chat about the potential benefits that the internet has brought musicians as well as the problems.

The reason he called me in is that he hopes to be a member of the committee who will hear evidence on the Digital Britain Bill sometime in the New Year. Like many MPs he gets his information about p2p activity from his kids. He freely admitted that Parliament have great difficulty in finding anyone from the file-sharing community whom they can question about the issue.

He didn’t know anything about a2f2a.com, but he was interested to hear that this dialogue was ongoing. Would it be possible, I asked him, for someone from a2f2a to give evidence to the committee? He said it shouldn’t be a problem.

Here’s a genuine opportunity to take our arguments beyond the dark pages of a2f2a and into the public arena. If we can we formulate a consensus that shows legislators that artists and fans are on the same side in this debate, it would seriously dent the credibility of the UK record industry.

So how about it Jon? You’re a British citizen. Would you be willing to come back to the UK in the New Year to appear before the select committee?

I answered »»»

@ Billy: “So how about it Jon? You’re a British citizen. Would you be willing to come back to the UK in the New Year to appear before the select committee?”

Of course I want to be there. When we started a2f2a.com, I said I was really happy to be actually doing something having been writing about it for nine years. This would be taking things a much bigger step further.

In another post Crosbie says “I’m not trying to represent a constituency, I’m trying to help everyone understand what’s happening.”

Me too. I may not be representing the P2P/file sharing constituency which, lest we forget, comprises not only men, women and children in England, but also a hundreds of millions of other people around the world, but I definitely see myself as an active member of it.

The Featured Artists Coalition will be at this meeting, as will corporate music industry lobbyists, politicians, and others. The only people who won’t be there will be the ones it’s all about – – the fans. If I go, I’ll be representing myself and p2pnet, the site, and I believe I could add an element that’s missing.

Crosbie also says

p2pnet and its community aren’t representatives of an association. They are members of the public particularly interested in technology that liberates people from anachronistic constraints of the 18th century, and particularly interested in its enablement of greater cultural exchange. They are also interested in ameliorating the depredations of corporations struggling to preserve an anachronistic and dying business model.

He’s correct. However, ‘Anachronistic constraints of the 18th century’ also means the continuing application of archaic laws which prevent people from freely speaking out, and with that in mind, I’ve been sued three times: once by a wealthy businessman; once by a Sharman Networks, the multi-million-dollar owners of Kazaa, the P2P file sharing application; and, once by its CEO, Nikki Hemming. Sharman eventually dropped its end of the case, but Hemming hasn’t. I won the first case in a precedent-setting decision with major implications for online freedom of speech. The case Hemming launched against me is due to go to trial this February. I’ve also been threatened by lawyers acting for four other rich corporations. Fortunately, when I ignored them, they went no further.

In other words, I’m saying I believe I’ve paid my dues as a member of the online P2P constituency and I’d dearly love to be at the meeting Billy refers to so I can report on it, and so I can speak as at least one of the people accused of being a filesharing criminal and thief.

It’ll be in the UK, but it’ll echo round the world

“What do you think?” – I added. “Would it be OK for me to go to Britain and talk to the committee members?

“I’d really like your opinion.”

And I really would.

Jon Newton – p2pnet

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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi

a2f2a post – The Digital Britain Bill, November 4, 2009

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