Good news for lawyers. And we love lawyers here at CMU, so that's great. Yep, following much speculation earlier this week the BPI officially announced this morning that they plan to take legal action against major downloaders in the UK. And hurrah to that.
The whole thing kicks off later today when the trade association takes 28 individuals to court over allegations they make large amounts of copyrighted content available, illegally, via P2P filesharing networks like Kazaa.
The BPI reckon that with iTunes et al now formally up and running the music industry has done everything it can to offer a legitimate alternative to those who have, in the past, downloaded music off the net from illegal sources. With that in mind, it is time to strike against those who continue to share files over P2P networks.
Announcing the move BPI chairman Peter Jamieson told CMU: "We have been warning for months that unauthorized file-sharing is illegal. These are not people casually downloading the odd track. They are uploading music on a massive scale, effectively stealing the livelihoods of thousands of artists and the people who invest in them".
The BPI first indicated that they were considering following the Recording Industry Association of America's lead in suing individuals who share music files on line (rather than the companies who make the P2P networks they use) back in March. The trade association says that since then it has sent out 350,000 instant messages to the computers of those people they suspect of uploading music via P2P networks warning people that what they are doing is illegal.
Jamieson: "We have resisted legal action as long as we could. We have done everything we can to raise awareness of this problem. We have encouraged legal services and launched an Official Download Chart. But we would be derelict in our duty to protect and promote British music were we not to take action to demonstrate that this activity is illegal and harmful to every aspect of the creative British music industry. We believe we have no alternative other than to enforce our rights through the courts."
Everyone who is anyone in the music biz lined up to support the BPI's move.
Beggars Group chairman Martin Mills: "Record companies are the biggest investors in new music in the UK. In return for their investment copyright law gives them the right to authorise what happens to that music. People who take music without that permission are damaging future investment in music."
SonyBMG UK boss Rob Stringer: "Breaking new artists can take years of investment and hard work. Illegal filesharing takes money from the business and from the artists. If it continues it cannot help but compromise our ability to invest in new British music."
HMV Europe MD Steve Knott, who is also chairman of the British Association of Record Dealers: "The serial uploaders who post thousands of music files free of charge onto the Internet are stealing this product in exactly the same way as a shoplifter in a music store. Theft on this scale cannot be allowed to continue unchecked."
EMI UK chairman Tony Wadsworth: "The internet has changed all our lives. It is revolutionising the way music is consumed. What it doesn't change are the fundamentals of the concept of intellectual property. Unauthorised filesharing is against the law. After several years of seeing it eat into our livelihoods, we reluctantly and finally have to resort to the law to protect our business."
Factory Records founder, In The City man and Granada news guy Tony Wilson: "Once upon a time there was a shortage of fully working legal download sites. Now that's gone. There are enough outlets for people to buy their music online and I mean buy their music online. I am always amazed the people who profess to love music are prepared to pay their council tax to politicians they don't like, their bank charges to bankers they despise, but choose to rip-off and steal from the musicians who are supposedly the great influences in their lives."
Feargal Sharkey: "I find it extraordinary, given the fact that 60% of musicians in the UK earn less than £10,000 per year and 94% of songwriters, composers receive less than £10,000 per year in royalty payments that we are prepared to ask musicians and songwriters, to turn up to work everyday and not get paid for it. Especially since all that many of those musicians and songwriters are trying to do, is to make the world the rest of us live in, a much more valuable, much brighter place."
Of course, we here at CMU have long argued that record labels have a right to protect their intellectual property. To dwell on the wealth of premiere league artists and the profits of major record companies is to ignore the vast investment made and risk taken by hundreds of smaller labels and artists every year in the music space - those that make the investment and take the risk should be able to safeguard their financial rewards. And much kudos to the BPI for their recent campaign to raise awareness about the illegality of sharing music online. The legal action announced today is a logical conclusion of that - you can't have a hardline PR stance and then not follow it up in the courts when people continue to illegally share music.
But - oh yes there's a but. But the music industry shouldn't expect this kind of legal action to solve the download threat - nor should they use the download threat to explain away every commercial hardship. Don't forget technology is out there that will make it increasingly hard to track illegal downloading. There is always research to suggest that just because people use P2P networks it doesn't mean they necessarily spend any less money on music (they might just spend more on gigs or merchandise than on records). And of course, it is not guaranteed the BPI will win when these cases go to court.
The future of the music industry in the digital age is unpredictable - and most of the download platforms out there are not really an embracement of the potential for music on the web, they are just a conventional record shop style business put online. We are not convinced the music industry can win the war against illegal downloading, however big a budget you give your lawyers. The fact is the income from recordings will decline, and the music business needs to find new revenue streams.
The point of the rant? By all means get the lawyers busy - but at the same time get those innovative minds that exist in every record label on the case: is recording and selling records the only way for a record label to recoup their investment? We're not sure it is.
Rant over, and well done all you lawyers. If only I had started that law degree sooner.