British Musicians Join Hands to Tackle Illegal File Sharing
Singer Lily Allen and 100 other British musicians including Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason, Annie Lennox, George Michael and Radiohead guitarist Ed O’ Brien assembled recently to discuss and find a solution to deal with the problem of illegal downloading of music.
The 3-hour meeting to tackle online piracy was called after a previous public dispute on the issue resulted in negative media hype. A consensus was reached after the meeting, wherein throttling of bandwidth was upheld as the most effective way to restrain constant offenders, instead of the initial idea to suspend internet accounts of illegal file sharers.
Many accepted that sending two warning letters to file-sharers prior to any restriction would be the best way to handle the menace. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson had earlier aired similar views, when he had stated that suspending connections temporarily must be kept as a “last resort” to tackle such offenders. Because the internet has become a basic need for most of us, and with the advent of the mobile broadband and the free laptop, it can be accessed whenever and wherever a person wants; many now consider broadband access as a ‘utility’.
A statement given by the artists indicate that once bandwidth throttling is executed, media file sharing would become impractical and access to email and the web would be the only practical functions the user will be able to do.
Lily Allen was however so upset with the negative criticisms she suffered for posting her passionate views about the matter on her personal blog that she refused to attend to the media after the meeting. However, criticism did not stop her from appearing at the venue and voicing her opinions with other artistes.
