Filesharing and free downloads: are they really so bad?
It’s one of the most controversial topics of the moment and it’s making headlines almost every day. It seems that everyone, whoever they may be and whether free music downloads have ever affected them or not, has an opinion to give on the matter. Even amongst musicians opinions are divided between those who think it spells the end of the music industry and those who are happy for their music to be readily available to a much wider audience of potential fans who would never have heard it otherwise.
The debate has been raging for years and it really doesn’t look like it’s likely to reach a compromise any time soon. Remember when the original download site Napster was shut down after a successful copyright lawsuit by the metal band Metallica? Everyone thought that was the end of it – it seemed the time of being able to get music for free was over, never to return. But then came Limewire, the Pirate Bay and so many other new filesharing sites, with new and better ways of operating, and never failing to stay one step ahead.
Metallica certainly had a point, and they are far from the only musicians to have spoken out against free downloads and the impact it has on the finances of the big label music industry. With the price of CDs going up and up all the time it’s not so surprising that people are choosing to turn to downloads, but not everyone realises the effect this could have on the music we all love. However there are those who believe that the music industry as we know it has had its day and that the future of music lies with the people recording their own tracks with DJ software on their home computers and publicising the music themselves online. This is only possible because the music is available online for free, and these are the people who are genuinely in it for the music not the money.
The latest musician to voice his opinions is Snow Patrol frontman Gary Lightbody. Although his band are hugely successful and far from being small and unsigned, he believes it’s just the modern way that music is available for free and that the penalties for those involved in filesharing are ‘way over the top’. He was speaking specifically about the recent conviction in Sweden of four founding members of The Pirate Bay, who have each been sentenced to a year in jail as well as having to pay $3.48 million in damages to a number of large entertainment companies. The group are launching an appeal as although they understand hese companies could well be out of pocket, there was no way to know how much by, and it was discovered that the judge conveniently happened to be a member of the Swedish Copyright Association.
There is no sign of an end to the debate on filesharing and certainly no sign of a compromise being agreed. There is no question that it is damaging to the record label giants’ and huge stadium rock bands’ incomes, but at the same time it enables the little guys at home recording their tracks with an Akai home studio and set of headphones to get an equal chance of being heard. Maybe there is no answer.
