Lily Allen disses P2P file sharing
p2pnet news view Music | Politics:- Britain is labouring (pun intended) under the delusion it’ll be allowed to put the interests of the corporate entertainment cartels in front of its citizens with spurious do-what-you’re-told legislation almost identical to that currently being touted by Hollywood and Big music spokesman Nicolas Sarkozy in France.
The French National Assembly has just okayed a draft law which would see ‘illegal’ downloaders thrown off the net without any kind of judicial process or proof of wrong-doing, as defined by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, on the one hand, and Time-Warner, Fox, Disney, Columbia, Paramount and MGM on the other.
And that’s the way to go, implies Britain’s Lily Allen.
Principally fronting for Hollywood is MPAA boss Dan Glickman, and for the labels, a whole slew of extortion units led by the BPI (British Phornographic Industry) in Britain.
And fronting for them in the UK are intellectual property minister David Lammy (right) and iz lordship, Peter Benjamin Mandelson, aka baron Mandelson.
A rift has opened between music`s creators and its record labels, with a broad alliance of musicians, songwriters and producers fiercely criticising the business secretary Lord Mandelson`s plans to cut off the broadband connections of internet users who illegally download music, p2pnet said recently, going on »»»
Mandelson`s plans aren`t Mandelson`s plans, however. They`d be more properly attributed to Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music who, together with the major Hollywood studios, Time-Warner, Fox, Disney, Columbia, Paramount, MGM, have intimidated weak-kneed governments such as those in the UK, France, New Zealand and Australia, into trying to implement what`s euphemistically called the Three Strikes Law.
It`s anti-P2P, anti-file sharing and anti-consumer designed to turn countries where it`s adopted into virtual copyright enforcement divisions, with ISPs acting as the fall guys.
But the entertainment cartels are are failing, and they`re failing dismally.
“Musicians from some of the world`s biggest bands are calling on the Government to abandon proposals to cut off the internet connections of people who illegally download music,” said Times Online last week, continuing »»»
Artists from bands including Radiohead, Pink Floyd and Blur told The Times that plans announced by Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, to suspend the internet accounts of those who engage in file-sharing will criminalise a whole generation of their fans.
The musicians, all part of the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), a new group set up to represent the interests of recording artists, claim that despite the damage that file sharing does to sales of their records, it can also encourage people to buy concert tickets and merchandise.
Ed O`Brien, the Radiohead guitarist, said: My generation grew up with the point of view that you pay for your music. Every generation has a different method. File sharing is like a sampler, like taping your mate`s music. You go, `I like that, I`ll go and buy the album`. Or, `you know what, I`ll go and see them live`. What`s going on is a huge paradigm shift.
However, Allen doesn’t see it like that.
‘Music piracy is having a dangerous effect’
“I havent written on here for a while but I’ve taken the time to write this as I think music piracy is having a dangerous effect on British music, but some really rich and successful artists like Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Ed O’Brien from Radiohead don’t seem to think so,” says Allen on her blog, going on »»»
Last week in an article in the Times these guys from huge bands said file sharing music is fine. It probably is fine for them. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world. For new talent though, file sharing is a disaster as it’s making it harder and harder for new acts to emerge. Heres a link to the article http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article6828262.ece
Mason, O’Brien and the Featured Artists Coalition say that file sharing’s “like a sampler, like taping your mate’s music”, but mix tapes and recording from the radio are actually very different to the file sharing that happens today.
Mix tapes were rubbish quality – you bought the real music, because you liked the track and wanted to hear it without the DJ cutting off the end of each song. In digital land pirated tracks are as good quality as bought tracks, so there’s not a need to buy for better quality. The Featured Artist Coalition also says file sharing’s fine because it “means a new generation of fans for us”. This is great if you’re a big artist at the back end of your career with loads of albums to flog to a new audience, but emerging artists don’t have this luxury. Basically the FAC is saying ‘we’re alright, we’ve made it, so file sharing’s fine’, which is just so unfair to new acts trying to make it in the industry.
You don’t start out in music with the Ferraris. Instead you get a huge debt from your record company, which you spend years working your arse off to repay. When you manage to get a contract, all those pretty videos and posters advertising your album have to be paid for and as the artist, you have to pay for them. I’ve only just finished paying off all the money I owe my record company. I’m lucky that I’ve been successful and managed to pay it back, but not everyone’s so lucky. You might not care about this, but the more difficult it is for new artists to make it, the less new artists you’ll see and the more British music will be nothing but puppets paid for by Simon Cowell.
And it’s not like there aren’t alternatives to illegal downloads anyway. Sites like Spotify give us access to new music and different music without having to rip someone off – you can listen to tracks and see if you like them before you buy them. Then obviously there’s MySpace, that streams music and helps acts like me get enough fans to convince record companies to sign us up.
If this sounds like I’m siding with the record bosses, I’m not. They’ve been naive and complacent about new technology – and they’ve spent all the money they’ve earned on their own fat salaries not industry development. But as they start to lose big from piracy, they’re not slashing their salaries – they’re pulling what they invest in A&R. Lack of funds results in A&R people not being able to take risks and only signing acts they think will work, which again makes British music Cowell puppets.
Is this the way we want British music to go? Now, obviously I’m going to benefit from fighting piracy, but I think without fighting it, British music is going to suffer.
I don’t think what’s out there is perfect. It’s stupid that kids can’t buy anything on the internet without credit, forcing them to steal Mum’s credit card or download illegally. It’s this kind of thing that the record company bosses, artists, broadband providers and government should be sitting down and discussing. I’m off to South America on tour today, but i’m going to be writing British artists, saying just this.
File sharing’s not okay for British music. We need to find new ways to help consumers access and buy music legally, but saying file sharing’s fine is not helping anyone – and definitely not helping British music. I want to get people working together to use new digital opportunities to encourage new artists.
Stay tuned as we watch the UK and French governments dig their own graves, with the entertainment industry providing the shovels.
(Cheers, Andrew)
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
currently being touted – French 3 strikes law passes. 4th, or is it 5th, time?, September 15, 2009
David Lammy – 3 strikes plan on track, UK tells Hollywood, September 8, 2009
baron Mandelson – Open letter to Lord Mandelson, September 5, 2009
p2pnet – UK `Three Strikes` plan under heavy fire, September 4, 2009
are failing BSA endorses three strikes plan, September 3, 2009
failing dismally UK anti-file sharing move angers ISPs, August 26, 2009
Times Online – Musicians hit out at plans to cut off internet for file sharers, September 10, 2009
blog – My Thoughts on File Sharing, September 14, 2009
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September 17th, 2009 at 10:47 am
Lilly, you’re talking bollocks. How much did your record company pay you to say this, my dear?
Try reading p2pnet and http://www.techdirt.com to get educated.
Oh and your music’s crap, too. If you bomb, it ain’t because of “damage” by p2p.
September 17th, 2009 at 11:18 am
Cynix , youre talking rubbish like a child , reading P2PNet to be educated ? dont make me laugh – its just a bunch of disaffected knee-jerk pseudo anarchists whining that they might get caught stealing whatever they want . People WILL steal and DONT want to pay for something they can get for free , its an obviousism that bands like Radiohead who sell a lot of records will be affected by a % of illegal downloads but when youre selling millions it doesnt matter but when youre selling a lot less , it`ll affect your money drastically . If youre a new band , it again obviously will affect whether you stay signed or get dropped . If you want to talk about injustices from record companies then do so , spouting a knee-jerk everything anti-filesharing mandate is just a childs argument . And being snide about her being crap is again a childs argument , its music that isnt to your taste – argue like a man not a child for gods sake , its just embarassing . Im sure this will be deleted as it doesnt fit into the blinkered view that perpetuates that file sharing isnt bad on this site .
September 17th, 2009 at 11:29 am
@ D7sr90999
File sharing isn’t bad.
Suing families as part of the scheme to gain control of online distribution, and then pretending it’s all about reveneue, is.
Cheers!
September 17th, 2009 at 11:34 am
D7sr90999 = TROLL?
You really need that education, my friend! lol
September 17th, 2009 at 12:30 pm
Yes, because we all know how the perceived losses of the entertainment industry trump the very real losses that will be suffered by the other 99.9999% of businesses out there who make a good portion of their profits from online sales and/or services.
I say we let the governments of the world bring in legislation that kicks users off the internet to appease the entertainment industry. Personally I feel that is probably what it is going to take to finally get all the other businesses of the world off of their collective asses and begin protecting their assets (aka customers).
If the wild abandon the entertainment industry has shown in their zeal for attacking their own customers is any indication, I’m betting users will be kicked off of the internet at a break neck pace. ISP’s will be the first to feel the financial crunch. Just what everyone needs during an economical crisis.
After all of the ISP’s (many of whom derive their income from more than just providing access to the internet, like TV over IP and VoiP for example) comes all the other businesses whom rely on the internet for anywhere from twenty to one hundred percent of their profits. This means all the Amazon’s and Walmart’s of the world, the Microsoft’s and Apple’s, the NCIX’s and Newegg’s, the eBay’s and Craiglists, the Cabela’s and MEC’s, the Blockbuster’s and Netflix’s. The list goes on and on.
There won’t be a single business out there whose bottom line is unaffected. We the citizens, likely in large swaths at a time, will lose our ability to find important educational and medical information, do our banking and pay our bills, buy and play our favorite online games (like World of Warcraft and all the stuff on Xbox Live Arcade for example).
With the direction some countries are going with online voting, disillusioned people who would have been much more likely to vote when it really counts won’t. Imagine how different Canada’s last vote, with it’s horridly low record breaking turnout, would have been with the ability to vote online from the comfort of home!
I can’t even begin to fathom just how many businesses total will be affected by lost profits. There are just way too many to accurately list here. I would hazard a guess that it will be no less than millions of them though. I also have no doubt whatsoever that those lost profits will run into the billions of dollars annually very quickly.
With how hard the entertainment industry is pushing the three strikes approach everywhere, it’s not hard to guess what their approach will be when it finally passes. They will be like kids in a candy store. Mark my words, it’ll be a free for all. No one, business and citizen alike, will be safe from the talons of the entertainment industry.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
@Uncle Sam:
That wouldn’t last long. The other industry leaders would sue the pants of the Big4Labels and these other companies have the money to pay the lawyers to do it!
Lily is off her rocker and completely misguided. She contradicts herself as those who record off the radio or make mix tapes acquire the songs they want, just like file sharers do. It is the same! The volume of songs is irrelevant because the exposure is a lot greater too, we’re talking global reach with filesharing. You can’t compare taped radio and the filesharing and say “look at the numbers, mix tapes were only 10 songs a month, but sharing files is 10 000 songs a month” because it is the same damn thing, people are sampling! It’s only a matter now that more are sampling than before!
Lily, if you create excellent work, your fans will spread the word, your filesharing counts will go up, more people will be exposed, you’ll enlarge your fanbase, more people will see you perform, more people will purchase your albums and swag.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
“The French National Assembly has just okayed a draft law which would see âillegalâ downloaders thrown off the net without any kind of judicial process or proof of wrong-doing, as defined by Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music, on the one hand, and Time-Warner, Fox, Disney, Columbia, Paramount and MGM on the other.
And thatâs the way to go, implies Britainâs Lily Allen”
Good stuff! Let Lilly sleep in her own crap as her fans dump her.
Thumbs up to Lilly.
September 17th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Oct 4, 2006 “She said: “When people around me get scared, saying I’m gonna lose all this if I slag off one more person, I’m like, ‘Oh f**k off, it doesn’t really matter!’”
So she doesnt give an rats arse about how people think anyhow,
makes her comments pretty much irelevant on the whole!
September 17th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
I guess she is just saying this because she want more money and think she can get it this way! but i can tell YOU LILY ALLEN YOU WONT GET MORE MONEY YOU EVEN GET LESS!!!!!! because then try-before-you-buy isn’t possible any more and people will choose more times to not buy songs simply because they don’t think its the money worth!
THE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY IS LIKE A KITTEN BITING IN HER OWN TAIL!!!!!!
it’s not about money its not about power ITS ABOUT SHARING CULTURE!
share-
it’s faire
Jasper100 someone that is prepared to support the creators of content!!.
btw. Lily Allen you music is great
September 17th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
You guys can get quite fanatic. I agree with D7sr90999 and at some point with Lilly. You shouldn’t all hyped and offended when someone does not like file sharing. You’re no better than kids that feel rebellious because they use Linux and “fuck Microsoft”.
Lilly makes quite a good points, those people saying they don’t care about file sharing, are in huge bands with millions of fans (and dollars), and it is indeed really difficult for a new band to get money to pay the record label with just live performances (specially nowadays with labels taking as much as 40% or your total income of every live show).
The whole music industry is flawed, big labels most disappear, but the idea of paying for a nice record should not. Don’t forget that making a record is not just some blonde singing into a autotuned beat. Lots of people work behind to make it happen.
September 17th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
“I kissed their ass, and I liked it!”
September 17th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
^^^
(Oh, wait… that was Katy Perry)
(Never mind!)
September 17th, 2009 at 4:09 pm
@ D.A………………lmao
September 17th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
1. Who the fuck is Lilly Allen?
2. What have I been saying about folks who don’t understand the history or purpose of copyright etc.?
3. Intentionally ‘misunderstanding’ the p2p thing has a big payoff:
Nobody ever heard of Indiana Gregg before her little pissing-contest with the Pirate bay guys.
Afterward, she’s been showered with startup capital, which she’s poured into her new ‘anti-pirate’ venture http://www.kerchoonz.com.
True, the site isn’t really anything innovative: mp3.com and Soundclick both allow artists to upload their stuff for people to hear for free, and every halfbaked “web 2.0″ startup has the same basic “social networking” features — it’s pretty obvious that she would never have gotten the startup capital for it, if she hadn’t thrown a hissy fit about TPB. So not only did she get vast amounts of *totally free publicity and visibility* when the TPB squabble propegated across other p2p-related sites, but she ALSO gets to look like some kind of crusading savior-figure protecting artists from the big, bad p2p scene.
Pitiful that anybody would actually believe it, but people have believed far worse — hence our continued befuddlement as to just where those WMD’s WERE in Iraq exactly, etc……
As to D7Ser999999, don’t even bother attempting to debate him. I doubt he’s an RIAA shill, because they usually just recycle RIAA talking-points. He *might* be analagous to “Sam I Am” (somebody who goes around spewing butthurt nonsense at blogs with which he doesn’t agree), but I doubt it. The way he throws “anarchist” around (thinking it’s a slur-word) also indicates he’s politically illiterate, much the way Republicans here in the United States tend to misuse the word “socialism” to describe any kind of domestic spending (since we all know they’ve got a perpetual hardon for the military-industrial complex etc.)
Question for D7ser9999: how is questioning the application of a particular law ‘anarchist?”
Bonus points if you can actually name even ONE prominent ‘anarchist’ theoretician (and no, the Sex Pistols don’t count.)
September 17th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Vato Loco:
I, for one, COULD have taken you seriously enough to debate you further — until you decided to claim that “kids” think their “rebellious” because they use Linux. Do you have *any* understanding of the issues you’re discussing, or don’t you?
(Then again, I *do* like the film your nickname comes from: “Blood in, Blood out” was a really good film.
Don’t think we don’t understand what you’re trying to do — it’s easy to paint the p2p debate as people just wanting to rip off corporate giants, no matter who else gets screwed over in the process, but that’s simply not true.
Now please do me (and yourself) a favor: go actually read back over some of the stuff on this site, questioncopyright.org, Torrentfreak, or just get Lawrence Lessig’s book “Free culture” — it’s available for free online, so you don’t have any excuse not to.
Read up on the issues involved — NOT just the RIAA-sponsored propaganda campaign — and THEN come back and debate us.
Until then, speaking strictly for myself, I can’t take you seriously.
Especially given the fact that you’ve misunderstood the Linux/open-source/”free software” thing so severely, but that’s another issue.
Tell me something: do you think the people protesting the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle were trying to be “rebellious?”
What’s so bad about “rebellion”, anyway? When a given type of power or influence is *unjust*, it’s only RIGHT to “rebel” against it.
So don’t try to portray Linux users as the equivalent of the Unabomber or something, it won’t work.
And stop preaching against “rebellion” when your nickname derives from a gang flick.
September 17th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Lily Allen should debate Nina Paley:
“This may be hard to hear, but: many artists who claim they just want to eat and pay rent are lying (perhaps to themselves). Most artists don’t want a living wage â they want to win the lottery. Suggest to most filmmakers and musicians that “success” is about $75,000 a year, and they’ll turn up their noses. You call that a jackpot? They’re only in it for the millions, baby. If that means working a day job and remaining obscure, so be it. Millions need to be poor so that one can be rich; they’re willing to do their time being poor, so that one day they can be rich at the expense of others. Their turn will come, they think.”
That about nails all of Lily’s stupid blather about how she “didn’t start out with the Ferraris”, doesn’t it?
Lily Allen — the Major Label’s latest idiot poster-child.
(What happened to Amy Winehouse? At least her crack-addled antics were kinda fun on occasion.)
September 17th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Robert:
“Lily, if you create excellent work, your fans will spread the word, your filesharing counts will go up, more people will be exposed, youâll enlarge your fanbase, more people will see you perform, more people will purchase your albums and swag.”
OR she can just generate a bunch of no-effort-needed publicity by slagging the ‘pirate issue’ (and cash in on the latest moral panic to boot!). That’s easy, too.
September 18th, 2009 at 8:43 am
@Henry:
75 000/yr? Damn, that’s a step up from where I am. Probably more enjoyable than hardware software integration testing/debug on satellite systems. Less stressful in some aspects.
September 18th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
Dr. Emrich is a wee tad mis-informed because her company (re: Indiana Gregg) got their seed capital BEFORE her stunt with the Pirate Bay. If you look up company’s house in the UK, the company was formed and received it’s investments from the Discovery Fund with co-investment from Scottish Enterprise in april 2008. Her fight with TPB was in June 2008. But, aside from that, her beta site is not anti-piracy, it’s pro-musician’s compensation. She has been lobbying for a license for music on the internet (globally) that would indeed actually help to ‘legalise’ peer-to-peer and it’s obvious that you’re a little clueless about what is going on. She was just on the BBC last week talking about all this. In the article she wrote that torrent freak published, you will find that nearly everything that she mentioned WOULD happen, HAS happened. But, file-sharers haven’t come together to unite and find a reasonable solution that would work for both file-sharers and artists. So, all you lot have left it to people like Indiana Gregg to do your work for you. idiots
September 25th, 2009 at 9:42 am
I think this just about sums it up: http://kickupthefire.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/its-not-alright/
July 12th, 2010 at 12:04 am
Anyone attempting to inhibit your ability to communicate information is trying to control you. It equates directly to someone blinding & gagging you. Damaging your ability to learn. Attempting to retard your mental development. Surely seems like a horribly awful thing to do to one’s neighbors.
The purpose of censorship is to keep you ignorant.
File sharing is the past, the present, & the future.
The future of the internet is a vast anonymous global wifi network which is self sustaining, big brother’s opinion of one’s online activity is trivial & of no authority as net neutrality dictates allowing those who are wise enough to know such ways to augment their communications with the world. Since before the first communication by our species began we have continued to develop faster & more efficient means of communication. The rate of information exchange is accelerating. So whatever hideous beastly form big brother’s psychotic egotistical arrogant delusions take their blood will always stain the hillsides red as it flows, ritually sacrificed by dutiful monks to liberty & freedom. You cant stop file sharing. Beautiful Pandora is outside the box and she is not going back.
You are your own authority.
You decide what you shall download & upload.
As you gather data by accessing the internet what you are actually doing is augmenting your mind. You see, all those servers out in the twilight zone calculating & crunching numbers are essentially extra organs of your mind. When you connect to the internet. You are using your senses to decipher information being made available to you by using your fingers touching the keyboard so sensually to interface with those enhancing resources which allow you to become a part of the macro intelligence of the network. Allowing individuals who do so, to reap the full benefit of those resources available making them a super intelligence. This process shall continue to evolve, in the future their will exist a transgenic cybernetic population. Man will continue from the clay to the statue & beyond in exploration as he goes gathering & truly understanding concepts. For instance in the future we will trade & playback experiences recorded digitally over p2p networks for first person experience. We will also trade the atomic blue prints of desired objects for personal molecular printers in our homes who use carbon to construct our imaginations desire. So when we need a tomato plant with its genome hacked to produce extra delicious nutrient enriched psychedelic organic tomatoes we will simply download its blue print & the molecular printers will grow it for us, make a screwdriver, make a pizza, and or make anything you want. Dream of it, then program its genome digitally, then share it across the stars. Offered up from the mind of the responsible artist enriching the world. It represents a coming revolution in product fabrication. A change in the development of our civilization. A shift away from a hydrolic empire towards greater self reliability, capability, and freedom. An advancement in personal living conditions for all who have access to such technologies. So those who attempt to impair such developments are in fact harming those who can benefit from such.
The little brains have been persecuting the big brains since prehistoric times and its never stopped us before. We continue to dream & make life better.
Remember you couldn’t stop file sharing if you wanted to…but you can try & experience a revolt if you do. The intelligentsia commit acts of psychic warfare as veterans in the field by hobby always out of love never for money as they sail the streams of the ephemeral seas of data through strange markets where they do sample all manner of format regardless of how anyone else feels about it as they should as they are righteous in doing so as free entities.
Unless of course, they are slaves?
Do you really own that nice car, that great property, and that beautiful home?
What happens when you stop paying your tribute money to big brother? This illegal tax against us run by foreign powers against our great nations turned to plantation style farms where human cattle dwell for slaughter in misery beneath the heel of monopolistic imperial madness driven by inferior fools. Sacrificed to another one’s selfish pleasure our freedom goes screaming murder as it is being killed as we miss our payments & big brother comes to claim his true property all our collective stuff. That nice car, that great property, and that beautiful home were really his all along. The matrix is real, you are merely enchanted in a hypnotic magical glamor, which dictate the rules to you slave. You are expected to obey your master. Yes listen to your master as his orders attempt to be echoed in programming into your psyche, here my wisdom & merely smile in it’s origin without fear for you have nothing to fear but fear itself & their is no threat from disobeying. You may simply not answer its call. You may see it under any light you wish. You do not have to recognize it as a figure of authority. The illusion of it’s control may be seen past to where darkness may be illuminated by your own spark through will power. Illuminating your third eye opens the gate to heaven. Liberate your mind to liberate your body from the clutches of immature psychic riff raff attempting to pick your pockets of energy.
You are simply renting everything you own from your overlord, your slave master. By what natural right are you denied equal standing in sovereignty to decide for yourself. Should you not believe me, simply stop paying your taxes. Hopefully you will not be harmed to badly as you are arrested then thrown into a gulag dungeon of horrors as everything you own is audited for liquidation at auction. No amount of tears will satisfy the parasitic vampires on their night until they have had their fill of your blood. Wake up slave wake up.
You may do as you please.
Enforce net neutrality by choosing not to be an agent of the matrix which favors imprisoning you. You may give your attention to & lend psychic energy to in the process any thought form you choose.
Fight censorship on all fronts as the tyranny it is.
Phuck you lilly allen.
Nothing has been destroyed in the process only created. Who may tell us as individual free sentience what we may create as the gods we are?
April 5th, 2011 at 12:06 am
They fear p2p.
They fear the future.
The future of the internet is a global uncensored anonymous wifi mesh uninhibited by 1984 big brother & natural disaster.
They will screech loudly when molecular printers begin coming off the assembly lines disrupting hydrolic empires that feed their brood through monopoly. In the future, individuals will trade recorded personal experiences through ephemeral seas online along with the atomic blueprints of objects like pizza slices, lilly allen albums, & screwdrivers on demand at will for fabrication.
Kiss the freedom of information’s ass censorship.