I wasn't going to ever touch on this subject even if is kind of relevant to me (yeah I do download illegally) but this article reminded me about the subject and I thought "fuck it why not blog about it" so that's what I shall do. People's reactions to the new file sharing laws were some interesting and some hilarious almost as bad as some of the penalties the Government are suggesting.
"Hey I better download everything before this law comes into effect" pssst your still breaking the law idiot, I think file sharing has become so mainstream that people don't even see it as illegal, no one was ever getting penalised for their actions and it will be tough for the government to penalise people once these penalties come into effect. My favourite of all the penalties is when theres a mention of your internet service provider banning you from using the internet. Yip I can see companies lining up to stop providing a service that is bringing in the moolah, just cause the government told them to.
More concerns about this are that those that voted this in are actually guilty of this themselves, multiple politicians admitted to illegal file sharing the day after it was put through, guess this is what happens when you let a bunch of loss lead your country...
Another concern is, what do the musicians think about this all? do they really think people are going to stop and go buy cds again? surely not, new release cds are still overpriced in many places and unless they're one of my favourite bands, its unlikely I'd go out and buy it straight away or if ever. However if they were to be playing live I'd definitely put up my money to go see the band. Unfortunately this is how things are going, the law is being passed essentially by lazy record labels who aren't willing to change to suit the way music is changing.
Labels have to work out a way to keep profit margins in other ways, they can't just throw a shitload of money at an artist to get them on their label, get a fancy producer and expect them to repay them in record sales, they have to cut out a lot of the excess that isn't going to help them. Perhaps lowering the amount of advertising used, or not giving the artist the big bucks straight away, looking to have them tour extensively in big market areas in order for them to not only them become mega stars but financially viable to the label.
Either way I don't think I'll change my downloading habit and it won't take long for people to figure out how to avoid getting penalised, if anything there's going to be a bunch of people with unsecured wireless who are going to receive infringement notices without them doing anything wrong, poor souls.
The major record companies are just digging their own graves. They are fighting against the internet instead of trying to utilize it.
ReplyDelete