Musicians rally behind online file sharing

Posted on 1 Mar 2005 at 11:42

A group of prominent musicians has called for the US Supreme Court to not hold online file sharing services legally responsible for any illegal activity by their users.

The group, which includes Steve Winwood, Public Enemy's Chuck D and rock group Heart, says that although it is opposed to the stealing of copyrighted work, peer to peer services such as Kazaa and Grokster are a valuable way for artists to distribute their work.

'Musicians are not universally united in opposition to peer-to-peer file sharing,' the group claims in its court filing, despite record companies insisting that they are.

'To the contrary, many musicians find peer-to-peer technology allows them easily to reach a worldwide online audience. And to many musicians, the benefits of this strongly outweigh the risks of copyright infringement.'

The record labels are asking the Supreme Court to hold P2P services liable for illegal sharing of music files across their networks and the court will begin hearing the case against Grokster on 29 March.

The group of artists argues that without sharing many aspiring, unsigned artists may never be heard. In opposing the labels' legal action they have joined a list that includes other file-sharing firms, major telecommunications companies, electronics makers, and coalitions of scientists, consumer and digital-rights groups.

However other artists, including Don Henley, Avril Lavigne, the Dixie Chicks and Sheryl Crow have backed their labels, which are not without powerful allies, including the US movie industry. Hollywood is concerned about the increasing rate of movie swapping. Now, unlikely as it may seem, religious groups are backing their campaign.

Although it is not the traditional friend of the music industry or Hollywood, the Christian Coalition has thrown its not inconsiderable weight behind them because it is concerned about the amount of pornography available.

'Hollywood is definitely a strange bedfellow to most of us,' said Jim Backlin, vice president of legislative affairs for the Christian Coalition of America. 'Our goal was to cut down child pornography and other kinds of pornography, and if for some reason we were allied with the Hollywood types this time, so be it.'

Author: Simon Aughton