Lily Allen piracy saga update
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- Alright already! 
Earlier today I did a post on Lily Allen, the now (in)famous copyright pirate. It was a follow-up to preceding stories in which she attacks file sharers.
Today’s item was sparked by an email from p2pnet reader David which pointed to a story by Mike Masnick on TechDirt which, in turn, noted Allen had the cheek to complain when she herself had pirated clips from other artists to use in her own mix tapes.
“You`re falling behind, Jon,” said a p2pnet comment post. “There`s already a lengthy follow up to this story at Techdirt.”
I had a couple of emails of the same ilk, as well as one from Ernesto at TorrentFreak. He’d done a post on the fact Allen had deleted her diatribe.
p2pet reader David had made the same point in Reader’s Write.
‘Too much abuse’
“Wow,” says Masnick in an update. “In the half an hour or so that I took to write this post, Lily erased the blog post where she responded (I’ve got a screenshot if anyone wants to see it), and just added a note to Twitter, saying that she’s shut down the entire blog due to too much abuse.
“Lily, it’s not abuse if we’re just asking you to rethink your positions that appear to not be particularly well thought out.”
Below are her Twitter tweetings »»»
hello, there is a meeting today in london where artists are meeting to discuss Piracy. my job done.
i wont be attending the meeting because it’s going to be a press frenzy and i don’t want to detract from the issues
i’m proud of the fact that that i’ve been involved with this debate but i’m passing the baton on to other artists.
and i’ve shut down the blog, the abuse was getting too much.
Elton John also jumped on the bandwagon, but the wheels had started turning when Britain`s The Times, a prestigious newspaper until it was snapped up by Rupert Murdoch, ran a whiny Allen OpEd which, by an amazing coincidence, had previously appeared in Allen`s MySpace thingy, MySpace also being a Murdoch possession, I wrote a few hours ago.
Now, for your further education and enlightenment, here’s Allen’s original post. I was told about it by Andrew over in Oz »»»
`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, said Allen on her now blank blog (see pic), 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.
Jon Newton – p2pet
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
September, 2009
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September 24th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Lily Allen would cause a “press frenzy”!?! She’s on drugs right? All the time? That would explain some of the ridiculous statements coming out of her mouth. Lily needs to grow the fuck up, read a book every once in a while and think (for hours at least) before she opens her mouth AND stop being a meat puppet for the entertainment business.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
“You donât 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.” I honestly never knew that. I thought that the videos and marketing was the reason you would give away most of your record sales. So not only do the record companies take a HUGE percentage of your music sales, but you’re paying for the marketing as well? Hahaha! What do the record companies actually do for all that money you make them? Why would you ever sell your soul to record companies for that kind of contract.
Protip: Don’t make deals with the devil.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
” âYou donât 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.â I honestly never knew that. ”
Many of us who have ‘been there, done that’ are here, and have said this very thing.
The ‘artist’ pays for everything.
The engineer, the studio, the producer, the marketing etc …
Creative accounting by the labels ensure that the ‘artist’ never is able to get out of debt, and thus is forever
tied to the label. The label ALSO holds the copyrights to the music, thus the ‘Rightsholders’ the RIAA scream
about are there LABELS, not the artists. The contract insures that the only one who ever profits from recorded
RIAA member music are the label execs .. not the artist.
An example of creative accounting used …..
the label execs use a studio and engineer who they have a good cheap contract with.
The ‘artist’ gets ‘charged’ triple the fee that the label actually had to pay for the studio time
and production. This pushes the ‘artist’ even further into debt with the label.
They have many such agreements with engineers, studios, marketers, and such, and
the ALWAYS charge the ‘artist’ at least triple what was actually paid for.
It’s a real nice money making machine, for label execs and shareholders, that is.
There was a real nice thorough breakdown that someone posted a while back on how
the money got distributed … I wonder if Jon has the time if he could locate and repost that
as a refresher on how the labels REALLY work.
It’s a little old but while the dollar amounts are different, the methodology is still the same.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
” Protip: Donât make deals with the devil. ”
In the old days, that was the ONLY way to ever be heard by anyone outside your hometown.
The internet changed that.
That’s the REAL reason they sue P2P sites and developers, and then buy them out.
It’s not that they really are losing anything because of P2P, but the fact that people
they don’t own and control can be seen and heard right beside the label offerings
is terrifying.
Competition sucks.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
She’s just a talentless waste of space.
September 24th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
heh, deletion too late.
The internet NEVER forgets.
Ask lars.
September 24th, 2009 at 9:13 pm
i looked at the archive the techdirt guy has. the only abuse comes from lily. most people there had something to say, whether right or wrong.
retarded lily’s abuse to her equally retarded fans – documented!
lily said:
September 14, 2009
“go and buy it from your local shop. if you don’t like it take it back.”
(yeah, right. like that’ll ever happen if it’s been opened and you have no receipt. twat.)
September 15, 2009:
“my album is one of the biggest selling british albums of the year and that has fuck all to do with my dad. stop feeling sorry for yourself and bitter and try being pro active.”
(what a cu-nt.)
September 14, 2009
“i don’t get paid for photo shoots bozo. i’ve never got paid to get my tits out. except at school, but thats different.”
(no, now she just does it for drugs.)
(dumb biyatch)
September 24th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
ps btw…
who the hell is lily allen, anyway? never heard of her until now.
and who is lars?
September 24th, 2009 at 9:46 pm
Wow. This whole episode has taught us a lot about Lily Allen:
1. She’s completely ignorant about the issues surrounding p2p, yet feels compelled to attempt to become the corporate media’s poster-girl for the ‘victims’ of p2p.
2. At the same time, she’s too fucking stupid to understand that her ‘mixtapes’ violated the same all-precious copyright PRIVILEGES about which she was bleating.
3. She’s too chickenshit to actually deal with the (inevitable) shitstorm, and triest to retcon the whole thing by deleting the entire blog when the “abuse” got too much.
Funny, but if I remember it right, Lily threw the first punch, and she *also* claimed to not give a rats ass (arse?) what anybody thought about what she said.
On the bright side, nobody will EVER take her stupid ass seriously, ever again.
THIS is why I *hate* celebrities.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
I was on that blog before she took it down and posted comments. Rational criticism far outweighed offensive trolling. Sure, there were a few dickish comments from btards and the like, but most posters defended free culture without resorting to insults. Besides, anyone who posts their opinion online should expect some trolling and ignore it. I think this “abuse” is mostly made up. Now she has an excuse to run and hide without admitting she’s wrong about copyright.
I read on torrent freak that lilly will end her music career. Is this true? I hope so. Talk about talentless!
September 25th, 2009 at 3:57 am
Hi guys and gals….. Thos who missed out on the Lily Blog can view same at: http://www.perceptric.com/blog/_archives/2009/9/25/4331713.html and of course, if any of you want the mixtape1 badly enough….. its at: ed2k://|file|Lily%20Allen%20-%20MyFirstMixtape.mp3|72291372|808CA942B491765CE53A22DD4C04B70F|/
File Name , Size ,Availability (… ,Compl… , ,Type ,File ID ,Length , Bitrate ,Codec ,Known
Lily Allen – MyFirstMixtape.mp3 ,68.94 MB , 1 (2) , ,? ,Audio ,808CA942B491765CE53A22DD4C04B70F , 50:12 ,192 k… , ,
Not that I would ever condone illegal file sharing – but gee, I guess if she placed it in the public domain AND it had EMI permission to be there – it must be OK to download.
I still think the whole thingis a huge publicity stunt…..
One of the Pagers I “undeleted” listed her concerts……
( view all )
Oct 22 2009 8:00P Zenith Paris, France
Oct 23 2009 8:00P Lotto Arena Antwerp
Oct 25 2009 8:00P Heineken Music Hall Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Oct 28 2009 8:00P Alcatraz Milan, Italy
Oct 29 2009 8:00P Theaterfabrik Munich, Germany
Oct 30 2009 8:00P Club Sasazu Prague, Czech Republic
etc etc etc. And would you believe – while I was sitting there – Looking at the cache file – it changed to include a pop-up add from Amazon for her new Album…….. Amazin’ aint it……
Sorry for being so cynical all… Not like me at all really.
September 25th, 2009 at 4:08 am
Ummm @Henry – if the tapes had an EMI copyright on the bottom of the page, then they may have been “approved mixtapes”.
I’ll await seeing what other artists tracks were on the mixtapes – however if any of them werent EMI signed artists.. Well then it’s not poor old Lily doing the pirating – it’s EMI aiding and abetting her in a major Piracy action…… .
I did post a minute ago an ED2K for the first mixtape but as it has a couple of [Links] it needs the Jon editorial eye once over……
September 25th, 2009 at 6:17 am
Her defense on the mix tapes was that she was young when she made them.
I did see the tracklists on techdirt I think, not 100% sure though. But if I remeber rigth all artists weren’t EMI signed.
September 25th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Tom, the blogs you linked to are not the deleted blog. Those are her Myspace blogs which are still there, along with some other damning ones…
As for her being “young” when she did the mixtapes, I believe she said 5 years ago?… not quite. The first one she announce on 01/19/06.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=36707169&blogId=79088703
The second on 03/17/06.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=36707169&blogId=99040517
Here she first discovers her music on Limewire and gives everyone her blessing to download it. (Hmmm… seems to me you would need to have Limewire installed to find it there.)
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=36707169&blogId=103287336
And here she gets into a rather lengthy thing about government intrusion by forcing everyone to have a national I.D. card and the ability it will have to trace your every move… kinda like what she’s pushing for now, having government force ISP’s to track your every online move. The hypocrisy never ends with this girl.
http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=36707169&blogId=97788169
September 25th, 2009 at 10:37 am
” Her defense on the mix tapes was that she was young when she made them. ”
We’d love to see the source on that before EMI or Lily pull IT offline too.
Even so, just being young wouldn’t have flown as an excuse for tenenbaum, why
should it for her ?
Any links or evidence of this should be found and preserved before the labels censor it.
September 25th, 2009 at 11:54 am
@Dreddsnik… Got most of it……. Thinking of setting up a Lily Allen Shrine – in Memoriam of a Great Naive Rock Star – except being the cynic I am – I’ll wait for the new Album to be released before I do – something tells me the girl who said “I aint going to the meeting…” and did – will not be in retirement for long…….
I mean she’s a goddamn heroine. A Joan of Arc…. There is a tear forming in my right eye…..
I can hear the Orchestra music swelling breaking into the hallelujah Lily Chorus.
But it will probably unfortunately be just enough to get the three strikes through the pommie parliament.
Follow up link on the antics of our young Ms Diva…. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8274072.stm
Basically the link tells us that the Musos have DECIDED on what filesharing fair punishments should be. And a couple bravely put their name on the Document to the British Parliament. Although I note that they are all the hasbeens.
September 25th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Check this out, Tom – http://www.p2pnet.net/story/28851
Cheers!
September 26th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
” @Dreddsnik⦠Got most of itâ¦â¦. Thinking of setting up a Lily Allen Shrine â in Memoriam of a Great Naive Rock Star ”
That would be fantastic, but the labels will probably use copyright law to get it
pulled.
Isn’t this even a little scary to anyone else ?
A large Corporation waves it’s magic wand and inconvenient truths vanish.
THIS is REAL censorship, and it has nothing to do with deleting abusive posts.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:03 pm
“That would be fantastic, but the labels will probably use copyright law to get it
pulled.”
Easy fix to that, Dred:
Anybody up for another “Grey Tuesday?” Can’t make it “vanish” if it’s mirrored everywhere.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:23 am
What a load of bollocks!.
In the early 80s we made hometapes and nobody gave a crap about quality as we had no cd to compare it to.Taping off a friend is the same as borrowing a cd,copyright says both are illegal for the same reason.
If they truly spent there money on themselves and not developing their business, then the stupid fuckers deserve to go broke.If i behaved like that in business i’d go broke…why shouldn’t they be allowed to suffer the same fate?.LUCKY for them they have the ultimate back up plan,bribe the corrupt U.S government to pass their laws in the name of what’s fair(P.C).The by-product of which is an open door to heavy censorship on the net by anyone with enough money\power.
President Obama will soon have authority (if he doesn’t already)to shut down the net in the event of a national emergency and considering that any demonstration or dissent is now considered an act of low level terrorism in the U.S,that is a very scary thought.
Now after 30 years they have arrested Roman Polanski in Switzerland on the eve of receiving a lifetime achievement award there.Arrested of course at the behest of the U.S government for something that was pretty dispicable yes,but even his victim say leave him alone and let me get on with my life.This happens in a country that has always prided and played on it’s neutrality?!,That’s even more frightning.
With Obama pushing for a one world bank and government, where all their laws are enforced wherever you live on the globe.I’m glad i live in N.Z where there’s a pissy little defence force that don’t have enough serviceman to surround your average department store let alone a pissed off and rioting population.The shits gonna hit the fan soon so WAKE UP as many as you can to pressure the polititions while we still have a voice.
September 28th, 2009 at 11:33 am
” Taping off a friend is the same as borrowing a cd,copyright says both are illegal for the same reason. ”
Actually, if the relevant text is not ignored ( as it always is ), both these acts are
legally exempted for personal, non-profit use. So neither of those acts are illegal.
The entertainment industry would simply like you to ignore the fact.
” Obama eeeevil ..blaaaah blaaah rimita ro ”
Less coffee, more reality.
July 12th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Id love to make lilly allen hit a musical high note doggy style while she was bent over the arm of a couch. Straighten her stance out on the heated issue. Take a digital recording of the event and share it over p2p networks. Tan her bottom a little darker than it already is, haha.