Make 3 strikes bill law, says Simon Cowell
p2pnet view P2P | Politics:- “Gleefully snarky American Idol judge Simon Cowell notes that his first insult was directed at his own mother when he was only 4″, says People.
He apparently told his mother her white pillbox hat “made her look like a poodle” —- and has never looked back.
Now he’s horning in on the Three Strikes farce and unsurprisingly, he’s on the side of the corporate music industry and Featured Artists’ Coalition.
“Cowell, alongside several other powerful figures from the film and literary world, has put his name to a strongly worded letter, seen by The Telegraph, which MPs and the Lords will receive today, to get the anti-piracy measures in the bill pushed through, which could see repeat offenders’ internet connections cut off” says the newspaper, going on:
“The letter, which is also signed by Sir Terry Pratchett representing the interests of authors, says that the Digital Economy Bill, “will ensure that British creators, entertainment companies and the 1.8 million people who work in and around the cultural sector are respected and rewarded in the future as they have been in the past, and that they are fairly paid when they put their work online.”
The Three strikes law is a corporate music industry scheme and an element of the ACTA project.
It’s being introduced as locally proposed legislation by governments in countries such as the UK and France. Under it, governments would act as entertainment industry copyright agents, and ISPs would become industry enforcers against their own customers.
The UK’s Featured Artists’ Coalition at first voted unanimously against any measures that criminalize file-sharing, but later renaged, voting “overwhelmingly to support a three-strike sanction on those who persistently download illegal files, sanctions to consist of a warning letter, a stronger warning letter and a final sanction of the restriction of the infringer’s bandwidth to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access functional”.
The letter is “also signed by Paul Greengrass, president of Directors UK, Tim Bevan, the co-chairman of Working Title Films and Stephen Garrett, executive chairman of the TV and film production company Kudos” and is “solely focussed on the clauses containing the Government’s proposed anti-piracy measures”, says the Telegraph, addin git goes on to say:
“Digital entertainment services are really beginning to take off: fans have never had so much choice as to how to enjoy their music, books, TV and films online. But for these new business models to develop, it is critical that more is done to prevent the illegal services providing easy access to free content.”
Stay tuned.
..… and identi.ca
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win ~ Mahatma Gandhi
The Telegraph – Simon Cowell lobbies MPs on anti-piracy measures, February 22, 2010
ACTA project – ACTA internet chapter online, February 22, 2010
later renaged – Sam I am — a troll unmasked, February 22, 2010
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February 22nd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Simon Cowell never fails to show he is an asshole.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:21 pm
and a GRADE A, Certified one at that!! I wonder how much scratch he got from the Kartels to be on their side cause he’s never gonna be popular again on either side of the pond with that attitude towards the people that watch his shows and pay his salary.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:44 pm
I wouldn’t download Simon Cowell’s so called music if he paid me, much less buy it.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
This parasite of Simon Cowell can say bye bye to his cars and houses since we got one of them we are not going to let him go unpunished.
February 22nd, 2010 at 7:53 pm
Simon Cowell is the epitome of greed and everything else that is wrong with the music industry.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Wow! What a surprise!
A person that works for Sony supporting Three Strikes.
Simon’s being a hypocrite here. Let’s not forget that it was UK fans uploading illegal clips of Susan Boyle onto YouTube that led to her global success.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
” “Digital entertainment services are really beginning to take off: fans have never had so much choice as to how to enjoy their music, books, TV and films online. But for these new business models to develop, it is critical that more is done to prevent the illegal services providing easy access to free content.”
This is absolute drek.
First they concede that this … ” Digital entertainment services are really beginning to take off ” is true.
Downloading through P2P networks is STILL climbing, and has never slowed .. this is also true.
If both of these statements are true, then the statement ” P2P downloading has ZERO impact on Digital Entertainment Services ”
MUST ALSO BE TRUE. this means that legislation of this type is unnecessary for those businesses to thrive. Therefore there must be
other motives for this type of legislation.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:11 pm
1. Simon Cowell == douchebag. That’s what he does, folks.
2. He works for Sony, so, equally unsurprising that he’s willing to be their “snarky” little bitch.
3. Does *anybody* still take anything the guy says seriously, after Susan Boyle? I mean, damn…he straight out admitted that he was all set to treat her like shit just because of her looks. This indicates to anybody with any kind of discernment, that he’s nothing but a “pimp” for the usual, formulaic, cookie-cutter bullshit the corporate media megaliths ram down our throats ad infinitum. (Do we *really* need more Britney Spears knockoffs, folks? Really?)
I *will* say this: for a corporate lap-dog, he’s unusually “yappy” and shrill.
February 22nd, 2010 at 10:29 pm
My favourite quote re Cowell (lifted from a commenter at TorrentFreak discussing the PirateBay trial):
I would rather lick a cats arse than listen to some music produced by Simon Cowell and his army of drones.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:36 am
“Does *anybody* still take anything the guy says seriously, after Susan Boyle? I mean, damn…he straight out admitted that he was all set to treat her like shit just because of her looks.”
So did you go out and buy Boyle’s CD just to ’stick it’ to Simon and prove he was wrong?
Simon Cowell is the ultimate troll who knows it pays to be a heel. . Susan Boyle was a carefully crafted story and the gullible lapped it up. I was amazed at how few people saw through the game.
February 23rd, 2010 at 2:11 am
“Carefully crafted story”
How so?
The viral buzz created by her clip circulating on Youtube?
Or maybe the fact that Cowell frantically tried to “cash in” on that buzz by offering to enslave (oops, I mean “sign”) her?
Your evidence that she was fabricated?
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:21 am
That the contestants you see on Britain’s Got Talent, Pop Idol, X factor have to go through a several lengthy auditions before they even appear for the on screen auditions.
Britain’s Got Talent is produced by Simon Cowell. Therefore, it is highly likely that he knew how good a singer SuBo was before her audition.
I even recall a newspaper article which stated that SuBo was encouraged by producers to “rough up her appearance” before going on.
February 23rd, 2010 at 5:06 am
There are plenty of companies that for a fee will create “viral buzz” across the breadth of internet. As much “buzz” as one’s wallet can afford. It’s no different in scope from the age-old practice of radio payola. Maybe the reason why Sony/Syco/19 Entertainment didn’t take legal action against the supposedly criminal Youtube posters –and no DMCA takedowns either– was because this “viral buzz” was ordered from the top.
The people appearing on Cowell’s TV shows are already fully “signed” (in a draconian one-sided contract) before they ever set foot on the show. (a few of these eye-opening contracts have leaked) Even the show itself is largely an illusion, a highly-edited concoction with a coached audience and applause “sweetened” in the editing room.
People believe these made-for-TV Cinderella stories because they want to believe them. It makes them feel good and provides a glimmer of hope in their otherwise dismal lives. No one cares to look beyond the huge facade, and find a team of marketing/PR experts behind the curtain pulling the strings.
February 23rd, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Three _convictions_? Perhaps.
Three _accusations_? No.
My problem with the whole three-strikes thing is that Big Content want to make it easy for themselves – and harder for everyone else – by avoiding the thorny issue of having to prove their case. That’s an externality – and an evil one at that.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:21 pm
Let’s see how well this goes. The ISP part of it seems to me very similar to the file-hosting (RapidShare) fiasco going on. They feel they need to show that they’re combating piracy but doing so hurts their bottomline. Like for Rapidshare, they’ll ban you for downloading copyrighted content but then lose your membership fees. Where do they draw the border between actively fighting and maintaining a customer base?
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:49 pm
Simon Cowell is the typical entertainment executive parasite who pose a danger to our society and that we must neutralize.
February 23rd, 2010 at 3:52 pm
“Simon Cowell is the ultimate troll who knows it pays to be a heel.”
Until someone get ride of him and his like that’s say.
February 23rd, 2010 at 4:56 pm
He’s probably still seething after being beaten to the #1 at Christmas.
Though there’s theories that that was a Sony marketing ploy as well…
February 23rd, 2010 at 9:13 pm
His influence is only as powerful as we let it become, here its near zero but as any entertainment type understands being on the tv gives you cred with the politicians who believe some of the “attention factor” will brush off on them. In this case it wont but we must it seems do more to nail this corporate slaver to the wall.
February 24th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
Point taken about “Britains got Talent”, however:
The fact that the corporate pond-slime resort to “manufactured” viral buzz (as mentioned) means what?
1. Should we regard any “big” viral phenomenon as “manufactured”?
2. Where’s the upper lmit of “real” virality vs. “manufactured” virality?
As to Susan Boyle: she’s, at worst, a victim of the corporate megaliths, in that she was “snared” by them. No worse than any other artist who opens themselves up to the formalized rape/slavery everybody calls “getting signed”.
Unlike the vast majority of what they churn out, she’s actually good.