Musicians against government plans over disconnecting file sharers

The UK government recently announced plans, headed by Lord Mandelson, to disconnect and heavily fine broadband users that were found to be file sharing, but according to one recent report many members of the music industry are not in support of these plans.

Illegal file sharing is an issue that has been at the forefront of broadband news of late, partly because the entertainment industry seems to be getting more and more annoyed with this practice, and partly because of plans that have been banded around by Internet Service providers and the government with regards to punishing those that are found to be illegally file sharing.

According to one recent report the government is still looking at plans to impose hefty fines on those found to be taking part in illegal file sharing as well as getting their ISP to disconnect their service, and these plans were put forward by Business Secretary Lord Mandelson after he met with a Hollywood mogul recently. The UK government has said that it wants to support the entertainment industry, which claims to be losing a lot of revenue as a result of illegal file sharing.

However, it has been claimed that many singers, songwriters, and musicians are not in support of these government plans, and have called these policies as being ‘extraordinarily negative’. Many musicians are said to have criticised these plans by the government despite the fact that their music labels may be in support of them.

Amongst those said to be opposing the policies in their current form are Sir Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney, and Damon Albarn. Amongst the groups in the music and entertainment industry that have come together to oppose these plans are the Featured Artists Coalition, the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and the Music Producers Guild.

Source- EFF.org