British Musicians: Downloading Music Should Not Be Prosecuted

A mild position with regard to file sharing seems to have been adopted by The Featured Artists Coalition, a group which includes140 popular UK musicians. According to the latest statements of the group individuals should not be indicted for downloading copyrighted files using p2p file sharing sites, AfterDawn reports. However, they also said that "companies such as MySpace and YouTube should be required to remunerate the artists when they use their music for advertising."

The artists are determined to present their stand to Lord Carter, a well know advocate against illegal file sharers.

Among the musicians who attended at the group's inaugural meeting were Annie Lennox, Robbie Williams, David Rowntree from Blur, Ed O'Brien from Radiohead, Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and others.

UK is currently engaging even more fiercely in the action of prosecuting pirates which made Billy Bragg say: "the record industry in Britain is still going down the road of criminalising our audience for downloading illegal MP3s."

"If we follow the music industry down that road, we will be doing nothing more than being part of a protectionist effort. It's like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.

"Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment."
He’s making a good point no doubt but who’s there to listen when all the British music industry seems to be hearing only the sound of money coming from lawsuits. In this respect a few artists such as NIN’s Trent Reznor and Radiohead showed that record labels could be made less of the indispensable mechanism in an artist’s work that they think they are and proven not so infallible after all.