UK Musicians Back Watered-Down "Three-Strikes" Rule

A brace of anonymous readers sent along coverage of UK musicians who have turned around to support three strikes, or a milder variant of it. What they suggest is more like "three strikes and you're hobbled" — after a third offense a downloader would be not disconnected, but rate-limited. The artists involved include Lily Allen, George Michael, and Sandie Shaw. The Guardian has more details. The final quote from the music industry, striking out at UK ISPs, is priceless: "BT is clinging on to an old business model which is supported by illegal downloading. That's not only unfair to artists and creators, but penalizes BT's many customers who use the Internet legally."

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[account_deleted]

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I'll just leave this here...

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.pirateparty.org.uk

Re:arg

[Aerynvala]

What planet are you from and can I go there? Yes, all of that is in theory true. But in practice it just, sadly, isn't.

illegal downloading is hard to stop

[msutchmk2]

Yes, downloading music pieces illegally has long been a issue that bothers the whole music industry. In some countries, nearly everybody downloads music from online resources illegally. However, it is hard or we can say impossible to stop them from doing that, because everybody loves free stuff. If you can download music for free, why bother purchase it from itunes? However, I do think the "Three-Strike" Rule should help reduce the illegal downloading from online. But as I have mentioned, it will take a VERY LONG TIME to eliminate illegal downloading and actually, it might take forever.

Re:illegal downloading is hard to stop

[mwvdlee]

Most musicians (notice the use of "most", not "all) make very little money from records, if in fact not leaving them with a debt to the record company. They get their money from live appearances and t-shirts and such.

Laws that limit the number of people listening to their music are likely to limit their income.

Re:Lily Allen, George Michael, and Sandie Shaw

[jabuzz]

Well George Michael is a convicted criminal so I won't bother listening to what he has to say with regards the law.

Lilly Allen has engaged in blatant copyright ingredient, on the web including infringing mix tapes, and copying of newspaper and other articles. Let he with out sin throw the first stone...

Re:penalizes BT customers

[slim]

How exactly are BT's "legal" customers penalized by downloaders?

<devil's advocate>

Bandwidth on contentious ADSL connections, used up by the neighbour's Bittorrent.

</devil's advocate>

Also, please respond to the Consultation

[mdwh2]

There is a Government consultation [berr.gov.uk], that is open for anyone to respond to. Please do - although it closes 29 September (Tuesday).

Otherwise this law will be decided by the likes of Lily Allen and James "fat fuck" Allan, who have nothing useful to add to the debate, other than using their fame to get media attention on the matter (whilst being a filesharing hypocrite of a pirate herself, in the case of Lily Allen).