The Irish Times – Fri, Jul 11, 2008

In this brave new world, the music companies would have to go much further. They would have to permit individual consumers to copy and distribute their artists’ works: effectively making those the customers both the purchaser and the “reseller”. That risks creating a monster: a legal file-sharing network that would challenge their own role as the chief distributor of music, at the same time as eating into sales of their products, such as CD singles and albums.

The recording industry has no choice. It is already faced with that monster and at least by placing a voluntary charge on those who are already sharing their music, it has a chance of benefiting from what is now second nature for many net users. The BPI’s plans to hunt down the file- sharers and exile them to a net-free life is simply a continuation of the strategy of prosecuting their own core markets, and criminalising the technologies that could save them. After 10 years, the rhetoric and the sanctions grow louder, but file-sharing shows no signs of slowing down.