U2's Manager Calls For Mandatory Disconnects For Music Downloaders

sleeplesseye writes "In a speech at the Midem music industry convention in Cannes, Paul McGuinness, longtime manager of the band U2, has called on Internet service providers to immediately introduce mandatory French-style service disconnections to end music downloading, and has urged governments to force ISPs to adopt such policies. McGuinness criticized Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' pay-what-you-want business model, saying that 'the majority of downloads were through illegal P2P download services like BitTorrent and LimeWire'. He also accused ISPs, telcos, device makers, and numerous specifically named companies such as Apple, Google, Yahoo!, Oracle, and Facebook of building 'multi billion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it', and of being 'makers of burglary kits' who have made 'a thieves' charter' to steal money from the music industry. The full text of his speech has been posted on U2's website."

Comments

Re:What a crock

[ePhil_One]

Talk about profitting off the backs of other's work- he's using U2's name (and website) to push his agenda!

I'm curious what U2 has to say about this. I haven't had much reason to buy U2 music lately anyway, but until now I've been OK with their politics. Be a shame if I have to start bad mouthing them because he supports a completely assinine potition on net rights.

Oh Yes, They Deserve Better

[eldavojohn]

And the message to government is this: ISP responsibility is not a luxury for possible contemplation in the future. It is a necessity for implementation TODAY - by legislation if voluntary means fail.

There's more exciting music being made and more listened to than at any time in history. Cheap technology has made it easy to start a band and make music. This is a gathering of managers; our talented clients deserve better than the shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have been treated in the digital age. Yes, they deserve the shoddy, careless and downright dishonest way they have always been historically treated by their record labels and managers.

I haven't heard any artists speaking out about their royalties drying up. Maybe because they made 10 cents on the dollar before and now they make 10 cents on the quarter now since it's all digital?

Funny how he starts with "We've been used to bands who wrote their own material since the Beatles ..." and neglects to remind us that we've been used to corporate engineered bands that don't even play their own instruments since The Monkeys. Look at their songs, who wrote them? Today, there are even more bands/artists being used as icons to promote music and styles they didn't even think of.

Is he complaining that Steve Jobs pulled the $1 per song price out of his ass? No, he's pointing the finger at file sharers. This guy is losing his income and his bands are probably curious as to how they can get that $1 per song from iTunes without having to pay their manager 40 cents for ... for ... what exactly did he have to do with that transaction again?

Earth to U2's Manager: take your cut of the work you actually do like arranging concerts and press coverage and then shut the hell up and let the artists do their thing and make money.

U2: Union Busters

[spun]

U2 started using Stage Crew Services, a non union shop, back in the '90s. Seeing as how they were born working class and still tout their so-called activism, that smells of hypocrisy to me. I haven't bought a U2 album since. Funny thing, everyone is so up in U2's ass, you can't find much about it on the web. I was part of a protest against them, we got a chance to talk to them, and Bono was the biggest piece of shit ever. Basically said, "Do you know who I am, and what I've done? I'm the biggest activist in the world, who are you peons to criticize me? I'll hire whoever I like."

Re:U2: Union Busters

[cayenne8]

"U2 started using Stage Crew Services, a non union shop, back in the '90s."

Hmm...I actually see that as a point in their favor!!

:-)

Why shouldn't they be able to hire who they wish, and pay according to market just like most other industries?

That being said, I thought most of what this guy said was rubbish. The manager clearly doesn't understand how things work in the tech area...closing up one 'hole' will only mean a new one will open. More undetectable modes will work if something like regular bittorrent is closed. There is no way to shut off everything without shutting the pipes down so much that normal traffic is affected.

One thing I will give the speech giver is this one quote:"U2 own all their masters but these are licensed long term to Universal with whom we enjoy an excellent relationship. With a couple of minor exceptions they also own all their copyrights, which are also licensed to Universal. U2 always understood that it would be pathetic to be good at the music and bad at the business, and have always been prepared to invest in their own future. We were never interested in joining that long humiliating list of miserable artists who made lousy deals, got exploited and ended up broke and with no control over how their life's work was used, and no say in how their names and likenesses were bought and sold."

You can't do anything for a living without also being decent at business. The thing is....the business rules have changed now...adapt or go extinct.

Re:U2: Union Busters

[LWATCDR]

You heard?
Well then why didn't they go to work for a union shop?
I guess I have different opinion of "unions". When I was a kid a friend's father worked for Piper Aircraft. A Union tried to get in there. He said that the union people where threatening them to vote for the Union. At that time Piper paid really well, offer health benefits and even offered scholarships for the kids of employees. They didn't let the Union in. Oh he was a the guy that welded the motor mounts so yea he was just a worker.

The other experience has to do with going to trade shows in Union towns. Yea it is so helpful for me to have to pay $100 for some union hack to bring me an orange extension cord.

So you are willing to make a statement of fact based on what you heard...
As far as I I can see a Union is the last thing that employees should want. If you are getting abused in by your employer and the law alone will not protect you then yes you may need a Union.
Otherwise they are a blight on society from my experience.

Re:U2: Union Busters

[element-o.p.]

I'm reasonably good at what I do, after a few years of hard work, I have both the credentials and experience to show that I can do what I say I can do, and therefore, I am typically able to negotiate a salary and benefits on my own. If the company I work for tries to screw me over, I will voice my opinion, and if I'm not listened to, I'll leave and find a better job somewhere else. Kind of negates the need for a union in my opinion.

I used to work in a Union shop a few years ago. The union I was in wasn't all bad, but it wasn't all good, either. In short, what I found was that a union is a lot like a bureaucracy -- it exists to perpetuate its own existence and if that helps the worker then good, but if not that's too bad. Case in point: I worked for a manager who was a really good guy. Before our shop went Union, our manager gave us a lot of flexibility in our jobs. If we wanted to work slightly non-standard hours, that was okay. If we needed a little extra time off to run errands, that was fine. If we needed to stay late to fix something, that was kosher, and we could come in late/go home early later as we needed. I negotiated a 4-10 work schedule and really enjoyed three-day weekends every week. Then we went union, and everything changed. Now there was a contract that said our shifts were 8-5,4-midnight and midnight-8. If were just minutes late, we were reprimanded. If we were still working on something at the end of our shift, we were to pass it off to the next shift. In short, our work environment went from a very happy, very relaxed, very "do what it takes, and we'll make it work" kind of place to a very adversarial, workers vs. management environment within a few months. It just wasn't any fun working there anymore. So I quit and found a better (non-union) job, and I've never looked back.

Principle is correct

[MrMickS]

[dons flame proof suit]
The principle behind what he says is correct. There is an attitude that because people can do things that they should do them and that by downloading music etc illegally for free that they are sticking it to the man.

The techology companies have paid lip service to trying to solve the problem. They offer up solutions but their heart isn't really in it. The ISPs find illegal media downloads profitable especially on capped tariffs. The hardware makers are happy to have music etc on their systems as its another reason to buy/upgrade. They want it to be as easy as possible to get stuff onto them. They will do the minimum possible to ensure that the lawmakers don't feel compelled to legislate.

Blaming the problems on a poor, or outdated, business model might work to salve people's conscience but the weasel words still don't hide the fact that what is being done is illegal. From a ethical point of view they are taking the product of fellow human beings endeavours without paying for them. Somewhat of a moral dilemma.

I fully expect people to heap derision on my simplistic view of the world but in the end the above is the truth of the matter. Anything else is just an exercise in smoke and mirrors to justify theft.

As a final thought. Its now possible to buy music, on a track by track basis, for a reasonable amount of money, without DRM. Has this made a dint in illegal filesharing?
[/removes suit][on second thoughts dons suit again, this is slashdot afterall]

Let me tell you about the One Big Union

[spun]

Unions as they exist today are a mixed bag, neither the saviors of the working poor nor the blight you make them out to be. Reform is needed, but that's been true of unions for over 100 years. I volunteered with the Industrial Workers of the World, otherwise known as the Wobblies. Most people don't know about us outside of history class, but the IWW still exists. Here's how the IWW is different: no mandatory union dues taken out of your paycheck, complete and total democracy, and only one paid (and democratically elected) position. Also, instead of seperate unions, everyone is in the same union, but a different branch. That way, when the janitors at a plant strike, the electricians do too.

I uphold that anyone should be able to hire whoever they like. But I and my friends should be able to bargain collectively, and we will point out, quite vociferously, when you as a business owner are trying to screw us over. That's free speech, and the Wobs used to read from the Constitution in town squares across the US just to make that point. That's one reason the IWW was suppressed so hard. Even to the point of being literally massacred.

We are NOT like other unions.

Re:What a crock

[Stripe7]

How long before someone builds a virus that will carry the signature of a "pirated" song and infect a bunch of machines so that entire networks get shutdown by ISP's?

Re:What a crock

[russ1337]

It wouldn't need to be an actual virus, it only needs to be something Viral. Says some hilarious mp3 file that has the same signature as that of RIAA content on the watchlist.

Conversely, If I was an advertiser and the audio ad available for download at my website just happened to have the same signature as something blacklisted - and caused my "potential customers" to lose their internet, then I'd be looking to sue someone....

Let that be a lesson?

[Trogre]

Why does this whiner have a voice that people listen to? Because he has influence.
How did he get influence? Truckloads of money flowing through the band he manages.
Where did he get his truckloads of money? You.

Lesson: Stop giving these people money and they just might go away.

Your wallet is more powerful than you might think - who you give money to determines who influences your government in the future far more than your insignificant vote ever will.