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A sad day for the creative industry in France

This week, following pressure from the French media industry, the
French parliament has passed a law allowing those accused of illegally
downloading music and films (exactly how this can be conclusively
proved as digital technology is beyond the typical knowledge of
lawyers and jurors...) to have their internet connection cut off.
Fortunately a similar move in the UK was thrown out- at least
partially - by our parliament.

Whilst I was expecting the media giants to support this move, I was
appalled to read that 10,000 people from the "creative" industry, such
as filmmakers and musicians, were calling for this too.

This amounts to a blank cheque to pull a plug on the communications
facilities of those who disagree with either the government or it's
corporate allies. There's a real problem in how to defend oneself in
court of false allegations - what happens if somebody believes a
download to be legal when it is in fact a pirate site. False banking
sites - a.k.a. "phishing scams" are commonplace. Also independent
content creators such as myself use the likes of BitTorrent to
distribute demos with a view to publishing sales.

When I started playing twenty years ago music was about freedom and
sharing. It really saddens me to think that there's some musicians who
feel that profits count for more than free speech and privacy- the
internet is one of the few places that one can buy / download or view
for free in Europe - most newspapers and radio/TV stations are owned
by a handful of people. Making a living purely as heavily censored
entertainment without any form of message - including LOVE - would be
considered by many of my generation and older as a fate worse than
death!

If piracy is a problem, a much better solution would be to impose a
levy similar to the UK TV licence of around €100 per year on broadband
users to compensate - by way of a filesharing licence.

However I'm not sure that it is. I only buy a couple of CDs a year of
new music - I'm a big music fan, but just don't like what the labels
are putting out. There seems to be a real prejudice against what I
would term "indigo" music- such as soul and folk - especially those
songs with fractal-based melodic and harmonic structures as much of
the best music does- or did.

Some in the industry smell a rat. We're constantly told on one hand
how current artists are breaking new sales records - Britney selling
more than Whitney :) etc and on the other how the music business is
going bust- wird or what. Is someone on the fiddle- do they only offer
recording contracts these days to people without the intellect to
question this?

My last purchase (and my first paid-for download) , Random Thoughts by
Natalie Brown was submitted to me as a demo. I subsequently bought the
full album though I could have quite easily obtained it gratis! I've
been handed home-taped albums and have subsequently been to see the
artists in concert, same with copied videotapes where I've gone on to
spend money on films by the same director or actors.

Interestingly, digital technology would allow a record shop to keep
millions of masters and produce "on demand" professional physical CDs/
DDs to order. CDs and DVDs are after all something to have in your
lounge in their glossy packaging as a conversation piece. Downloads
form iTunes don't look as good!

Write to your MEPs to protest about this law

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