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More three-strikes talk? Yes. Blame Lily
By CMU Editorial | Published on Thursday 17 September 2009
Lily Allen has taken to her MySpace blog once again to respond to some of the comments made about her previous post on the subject of file-sharing, and efforts to stop it.
As previously reported, earlier this week she spoke out in opposition to the Featured Artists Coalition’s stance on the matter; they are opposing the government’s current proposals that a series of measures be introduced that could lead to serial file-sharers having their net connections suspended.
Ironically Lily’s original blog has been so widely quoted from this week, it’s arguable that the intellectual property in her written rantings is worth more than the copyrights in her recorded music, though only Rupert Murdoch’s MySpace is benefiting from that at the moment. Bastard. Perhaps we could have his internet connection cut off. Or perhaps Lily should think of a better way of licensing her online rambles to other media, turning them it into a revenue stream, but not just yet because we’re about to dip heavily into her most recent post ourselves and don’t want to have to pay for the privilege.
Her blogged response is, I think, more aimed at people who have left comments below her original post, rather than the media coverage of it. She refutes claims that the fall in record sales is merely a product of the recession, as some (who are wrong) have said, and agrees that sometimes companies over charge for music. She also points out that thousands of people were made redundant by her label, EMI, last year, seemingly as an example of the impact of piracy, though I think with regards EMI years of mismanagement and a slightly misinformed new leader were as much to blame for the sweeping job cuts as kids who file-share.
Anyway, she wrote: “The long and short of it is, even before this economic downturn, piracy has been affecting all areas of entertainment, except maybe theatre … if people go on consuming at the rate they are and do not pay for what they are consuming, not only will the artists within all these industries be without jobs and unable to express themselves but the behind the scenes people too … people are being laid off in all areas and the record companies are no exception. My own label EMI laid off thousands last year. I don’t care so much about the high-ups (and by the way they’re always the last to go – what a surprise) but the people who are going out are the young ones, the lifeblood basically. They’re the ones that go first, I’ve seen it. And the same is happening in TV and film. Why do you think you are just getting ‘Terminator 6’ and ‘Harry Potter 7’ instead of exciting new voices? Because the young voices are not there anymore”.
Turning the fight against file-sharing into a fight against, rather than in support of, the most mainstream of the corporates, she concluded: “The internet is the most amazing thing, but it should be OUR thing, and ironically piracy is just playing into the hands of the corporations. What these artists and creators do, they do for the love of it, I know it’s hard because money is scarce but we have to inject money back into these areas. It’s not fair to steal people’s material. I know it’s art and it has no physical value but even Shakespeare had shares in The Globe Theatre. People will lose their jobs, you’ll be watching ‘X-Factor’, Simon Cowell will be getting richer, radio stations will be churning out old back catalogues from people your dad or even your granddad’s age (Vera Lynn is number one this week) and the taxpayer will have to subsidise yet more unemployment”.
