p2pnet news view Politics | Music:- They say behind every great man there’s a woman.

French president and enthusiastic entertainment cartel supporter Nicolas Sarkozy certainly thinks he’s great.

And so does his wife, struggling corporate songstress Carla Bruni.

But before we get to that, until this year, much of the emphasis on phony claims by the major corporate movie and music studios that file sharing was, and is, ruining their businesses, centred on lawsuits targeting their own customers.

But all Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony Music and Time-Warner, Fox, Disney, Columbia, Paramount and MGM, achieved was to alienate existing customers and create a brand new consumer base of people who want nothing to do with Hollywood or the Big 4 record labels.

It took almost seven years for the message to sink in that suing the people who keep you alive is bad business practice, and that a new strategy was called for.

So the entertainment industry multinationals decided if they couldn’t use the law courts to gain control of how and by whom product was distributed online, they’d instead turn to supporters they knew they could rely on because they’d already been bought and paid for.

Politicians.

The wise auld greybeards who control the cartels came up with a scenario they figured couldn’t fail: use governments as copyright enforcement agencies, with local taxpayers footing the bill, and internet service providers working as copyright cops to identify file sharers and turn them over to the labels, primarily, and studios for firm action.

It’s called the Three Strikes plan and under it, alleged copyright infringers — file sharers — get two warnings and if they don’t do what they’re told — buy corporate ‘product,’ and only corporate ‘product’ — they get thrown off the net.

France is so far leading the way, with Britain close behind.

“Under avowed entertainment industry acolyte Nicolas Sarkozy, France passed Hadopi2, a revised version of legislation allowing the creation of a virtually unsupervised corporate agency funded by French taxpayers,” said p2pnet yesterday, going on:

“It would target alleged online copyright infringers, ultimately selected by the labels. Supposed transgressors would be faced with hefty fines and the disconnection of their net accounts if they failed to toe the corporate line. And they’d have no redress .

“The same policies are under consideration in Britain, Australia, New Zealand and South Korea, among others, and if the cartels have their way, Canada will also change its laws to  answer the demands of corporate business interests, opening the way for the entertainment industry to turn Canada into another copyright enforcement agency, with Canadians footing the bill.”

The Universal Music Group, aka France’s Vivendi Universal, is the, “pied piper that all record companies followed into their digital abyss,” said a knowledgeable source, continuing, “UMG’s bright minds are partly behind this law having helped to convince the Vivendi lobbyists to carry this banner through the French legislature.”

Vivendi is, “quite influential,” said the source, adding »»»

It’s core assets used to include all of the major water projects in France (which means local power in every district that elects legislators) and still include Canal Plus, the HBO (and more) of France.

At UMG, no matter how much their eyes have been opened to the digital future, plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose — the more things change , the more they stay the same.

One cannot claim abandonment of a bankrupt policy of suing your customers and then walk across the Atlantic to get a law permitting your customers to be cut off from a critical and increasingly non-elective Internet.

The record companies have not changed.

They are as mean spirited and narcissistically obsessed with the power of their property holdings as they have ever been.

They should stay in the corner with their dunce hats on.

Joint venture

Downtown Records is a record label owned and operated by Downtown Music. Downtown Music music is in turn distributed by Universal’s Fontana and, for certain releases, as a joint venture with Atlantic Records, owned by the Warner Music Group.

So?

Well, as we noted above Vivendi isn’t without influence in France, and it’s also the largest, wealthiest and most powerful of the Big 4 record labels which completely dominate the corporate music industry through thousands on smaller labels they own and/or control by one means or another, and many of which appear to be independent.

The other members of the Big 4 gang are: Sony (Japan), EMI (Britain), and Warner Music (US, but controlled by a Canadian).

But back to Carla — and Nicolas, of course.

Sarkozy believes he’s rammed home ‘anti-piracy’  legislation on behalf of the Big 4, with Vivendi/UMG in the lead, and Hollywood in the wings.

He’s wrong, but while we wait for the scheme to come unglued, it’s worth mentioning a deal struck between Vivendi, Carla, Nicolas, and the French people, although the French people didn’t know they were involved until it was too late.

UMG/Vivendi released the new Carla Bruni album, her third, through a deal with Downtown:

Not only but also, the French government funded the distribution of 14,000 copies to marketing people worldwide.

As the Daily Mail put it:

“At least 14,000 ‘marketing ambassadors’ in 19 countries have received Comme Si De Rien N’était (As If Nothing Happened) along with wine and cheese vouchers, and corkscrews.”

Marketing ambassadors? Cheese voucher and corkscrews?

“The French treasury purchased the albums along with wine and cheese vouchers as part of the 1 million pounds (about C$1,605,147) campaign,” says the story, adding »»»

Miss Bruni’s third album has been embarrassingly unsuccessful.

Although it was released soon after her marriage to Mr Sarkozy last year – an event which guaranteed masses of free publicity – the CD sold less than 90,000 copies in France.

In March Miss Bruni faced further humiliation when she did not receive a single nomination at the ‘Victories of Music’, the French recording industry equivalent of the Brit awards.

Responding to vitriolic reviews of her last album, Miss Bruni said: ‘Of course it hurts me, but I suppose it’s quite natural.

‘It’s understandable that people can’t help mixing up my work as an artist and my official role.’

The Ministry of Agriculture initiative will not be the first time that Miss Bruni’s music been given away for free.

She regularly presents her albums as gifts to world leaders including Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, although to date none have commented on what they think of them.

Stay tuned.

Follow p2pnet on Twitter.

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

close behind – Big Music vs The Invisibles, September 245, 2009
p2pnet – Vive la France?, September 24, 2009
Warner Music Group – RIAA not owned by Big 4 labels, January 21, 2009
Daily Mail – Sarkozy finds a way to boost wife Carla’s singing career… give thousands of her CDs away for free to French ‘ambassadors’, May 5, 2000

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 10:24 am and is filed under Music, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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