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p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- An important all-party working group of British parliamentarians has come out against the entertainment cartel-initiated Three Strikes plan, under which alleged file sharers could ultimately be thrown off the net without benefit of due process.

The ‘graduated response’ scheme, as Hollywood and the Big 4 record labels call it, is being touted around the world as the answer to online ‘piracy’.

The man fronting the scheme in Britain for Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, and Time-Warner, Fox, Disney, Columbia, Paramount and MGM, is lord Peter Mandelson.

Yesterday, 18 MPs from across the board threw their weight behind Labour’s Tom Watson in an early day motion protesting the ‘Government-as-copyright-cops‘ plan.

Now, in a just-published 46-page report, apComms, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Communications, says it’s not prepared to recommend having the accounts of ‘illegal’ file sharers cut off.

The Can We Keep Our Hands Off The Net? inquiry suggests disconnecting alleged transgressors isn’t a good idea because, “this is not in the slightest bit consistent with policies that attempt to promote eGovernment”.

However, Music Week points out, “there appears to be some confusion over semantics. BPI director of public affairs Richard Mollet says that the industry has not actually called for disconnection. ‘We are asking for temporary account suspension, which is different from disconnection’,” he says.

But, says the story, “Mollet is encouraged by another recommendation” which says ISPs should take proactive steps to detect and remove inappropriate content from their services.

Mollet has been assured that “inappropriate content” relates to copyrighted material,” says the story.

Enter a2f2a

Until now, all the running has been made by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music in their bid to gain total control of the Internet as their exclusive sales, marketing and distributional channel.

However, a new online site representing both fans and artists, and run jointly by them, is to be launched next week.

Called a2f2a.com — artists-to-fans-to-artists — it acknowledges »»»

• Creators want, and need, to be paid for their work, and music lovers want to pay them
• Trying to use technical sanctions to solve the ‘pirate’ problem won’t work
• Artists and fans need to start talking, and keep on talking, until they’ve found ways to resolve the various issues that’ve been keeping thm apart.
• Artists and fans need a space on the net where everyone can get together and work things through intelligently, and without acrimony.

With this in mind, a2f2a.com’s primary goals are to »»»

1. Help each community better understand the other;
2. Find a practical and workable system which offers artists fair remuneration in exchange for access to material by fans; and
3. Set the agenda for discussions about the role P2P can play within the emergent digital record industry.

a2f2a will also present accurate and realistic views of online music, which is currently lacking.

Stay tuned.

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

Government-as-copyright-cops – Labour MP Tom Watson attacks 3 Strikes plan, October 14, 2009
Music Week - Inquiry muddies waters on filesharing, October 15, 2009
launched next week – Music in the 21st century: framing the debate, October 12, 2009

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