Prison for Pirated Music?
June 10th, 2011
Robin Gibb wants you in jail for pirating his tunes
A growing concern among vocal artists is the prevalence of pirated music circulating around the Internet via torrents and file-sharing sites. Many have complained about being denied the compensation and funds they deserve, but at what cost to the downloaders? According to former Bee Gees singer Robin Gibb, the proper penalty for pirated streams should be time behind bars.
At an anti-piracy summit in Brussels, Mr. Gibb put forward the idea in the push for greater EU control over piracy laws, as well as getting internet service providers involved in the practice of stamping out offenders. His claim, like those of his peers, is that they aren’t getting the “fair renumeration” for their music. However, music sales losses over the past ten years have been mainly attributed to declines in CD sales by as much as 60%, with internet piracy representing much smaller losses.
One proposal put forth is to create a single market for audiovisual needs to prevent piracy concerns in the future. While music piracy is breaking the law, there is no need for any of these harsh regulatory practices to stamp it out. It is extreme to throw somebody in jail for downloading 2 or 3 songs over torrents, and it’s even more insane to create a government-monitored market for music recording devices. It amounts to government controls on a sector of the economy, as well as a heavy-handed crackdown on relatively soft crime.
In 2019, our rebels may be facing imprisonment for minting their own currency, or for standing in the way of the Federal Reserve’s ability to take people’s homes to keep prices steady. It would be rather ludicrous if they were to be arrested for having downloaded “American Idiot” over Limewire, like so many other people with access to the Internet.
