United stand on Illegal file-sharing made by the music industry

Although it is still not clear whether it will continue with its demands for the suspension of broadband connection of persistent file-sharers the music industry has, however, confirmed that it has now reached a unified position on the illegal sharing of files.

The umbrella group UK Music recent said in a statement “government intervention is extremely welcome”, which came ahead of the deadline of 29th September for comments on in the government illegal file-sharing consultation.

Dave Rowntree, the blur drummer and a number of other artists have attacked the proposals made by the government to suspend the broadband connection of anyone found to be persistently file-sharing and this recent emergence of opposing views within the music industry has led to the release of this position statement.

The prospect of laws such as this has been welcomed by industry lobby groups and record labels.

In order to compile a common response to the government consultation the head of UK Music, Feargal Sharkey advised that the group had joined with the Music Producers Guild and the Entertainment Retailers’ Association.

A group that had originally condemned this proposed new law had consisted of Basca (British Academy of Songwriters, Composers & Authors), which is a member of UK Music and the Music Producers Guild. The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) was not a part of the joint position statement that was made recently and has been opposed to the government proposals from the beginning. The FAC includes artists such as Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, Rowntree and Annie Lennox.

Sharkey was recently asked about the bringing together of all the different strands of the music industry and he said “Conversations will progress over coming weeks and days to ensure the industry can go out there with a clear vision on how we want government to help us going forward.”

Source – Guardian