Digital Economy Act 2010
An open letter to my MP (who voted in favour of the bill).
Dear Martin Salter,
What on earth?
That bill should have been thrown out! not passed. Never mind the fact that 64% of MPs didn't even bother to show up!
The music piracy problem is of the music industry's own making. When CDs were first introduced, they cost £5 each. The price quickly went up to between £15 and £20, for a CD with at most 12 tracks on it.
This is still the case today. And yet, two months later and that same CD can be found on special offer for £3.99. I work in retail and I know that things on special offer are usually still making a profit for the retailer!
And then, two years later, the same tracks can be found on a "best of" compilation album, along with 49 others, for the same price of £15.
Legal music down-loads, when first introduced, cost about £1 per mp3. That was still far too much. A CD costs about 5p to produce, an mp3 about 0p.
But what about the artists? I've heard that cry on the media until it makes me sick. Show me a poor rock star!
What about the ones just starting out? What about them? If their music is any good people will buy it regardless! If it isn't, they deserve to stay poor!
What about the stage crews, production crews, etc? I repeat, show me a poor rock star! They can afford to pay these hard working back-stage people!
In summary, the music piracy problem is the music industry's own fault and they should be forced to fix it on their own by cutting prices and taking less money, rather than by having some half-arsed piece of idiotic legislation forced through a back-door!
And I am surprised at YOU! You are supposed to be a Labour MP, not a money grubbing Tory! I would have expected a good Socialist to vote against such a ridiculously capitalist piece of legislation!
I guess it's a good job you're stepping down.
Yours sincerely,
The solution to this is for everyone to download music illegally. Boycott the pay per download sites. That may force them to cut prices (in fact from what I've seen it already has, most DLs are now 49p). But more than that it comes down to the old addage of safety in numbers. They can't shut off everyone's internet access, because if they do, guess what? The internet service providers go out of business!
And that is not good for the economy in a digital age.
Which would you rather have, Mr [Browncameronorwhoever], a few disgruntled musicians with too much money and too much time on their hands and a thriving e-economy, or happy dope-headed artists and a fucked-over e-economy?
Dear Martin Salter,
What on earth?
That bill should have been thrown out! not passed. Never mind the fact that 64% of MPs didn't even bother to show up!
The music piracy problem is of the music industry's own making. When CDs were first introduced, they cost £5 each. The price quickly went up to between £15 and £20, for a CD with at most 12 tracks on it.
This is still the case today. And yet, two months later and that same CD can be found on special offer for £3.99. I work in retail and I know that things on special offer are usually still making a profit for the retailer!
And then, two years later, the same tracks can be found on a "best of" compilation album, along with 49 others, for the same price of £15.
Legal music down-loads, when first introduced, cost about £1 per mp3. That was still far too much. A CD costs about 5p to produce, an mp3 about 0p.
But what about the artists? I've heard that cry on the media until it makes me sick. Show me a poor rock star!
What about the ones just starting out? What about them? If their music is any good people will buy it regardless! If it isn't, they deserve to stay poor!
What about the stage crews, production crews, etc? I repeat, show me a poor rock star! They can afford to pay these hard working back-stage people!
In summary, the music piracy problem is the music industry's own fault and they should be forced to fix it on their own by cutting prices and taking less money, rather than by having some half-arsed piece of idiotic legislation forced through a back-door!
And I am surprised at YOU! You are supposed to be a Labour MP, not a money grubbing Tory! I would have expected a good Socialist to vote against such a ridiculously capitalist piece of legislation!
I guess it's a good job you're stepping down.
Yours sincerely,
The solution to this is for everyone to download music illegally. Boycott the pay per download sites. That may force them to cut prices (in fact from what I've seen it already has, most DLs are now 49p). But more than that it comes down to the old addage of safety in numbers. They can't shut off everyone's internet access, because if they do, guess what? The internet service providers go out of business!
And that is not good for the economy in a digital age.
Which would you rather have, Mr [Browncameronorwhoever], a few disgruntled musicians with too much money and too much time on their hands and a thriving e-economy, or happy dope-headed artists and a fucked-over e-economy?