Radiohead, Iron Maiden and Travis are among the recording artists speaking out against "three-strikes" legislation that would disconnect repeated illegal file sharers from the Internet.
The British Phonographic Agency, among other groups, is calling on UK lawmakers to enact such a plan, which has already been approved in France and is getting consideration in Italy. The Featured Artists Coalition, which includes the aforementioned bands, argues that the music industry is targeting the wrong people.
"The people who are doing the most damage to our industry are not the music fans swapping files for no commercial gain – it's the sites that are making money without paying for content that are really ripping us off," musician and coalition board member Billy Bragg wrote.
He explained that the coalition opposes copyright infringement, but understands people will use technology to get free music if they can. "The next generation of music fans may no longer want to pay for music, but they are still hungry to hear it," Bragg said. "The challenge to the industry is to find ways to monetise their behaviour."
As an example, he points to Internet service provider Virgin Media's plan to offer subscription-based peer-to-peer file-sharing, noting research that said 80 percent of Pirate Bay users were willing to pay for such a service. Sony and UK Universal tanked the plan by demanding strict anti-piracy measures weeks before launch.
Now, there seems to be a discrepancy in what Bragg is saying, because a subscription-based peer-to-peer service is obviously not free. But if consumers indeed have the will to pay for a such a service, it's a shame that it never happened. I think the idea is this: The industry is reluctant to try new business models, so it's instead attacking music fans by asking ISPs to do the dirty work.
We've heard all this before, but it's nice to get the argument from musicians, whom the recording industry is supposedly trying to protect.
