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U2 Manager: Crazy ISP Hippies Should Pay Us
Blaming other industries for your own financial shortcomings

U2's long time manager Paul McGuinness apparently blames Silicon Valley's "hippie values" for the collapse of the music industry, and wants ISPs and all technology companies to start paying the music industry. McGuinnes argues that ISPs and companies like Google have "built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it." Says McGuinness to the Financial Times:

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quote:
"I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P file thief and on to the multibillion dollar industries that benefit from these countless tiny crimes. The ISPs [internet service providers] the telcos [telecoms companies], the device-makers."
Piracy drove broadband adoption for years. Lately we've seen ISPs and their employees complain that the content providers should pay them a little extra for building their business models on the back of their networks. Now the music industry wants ISPs to subsidize their floundering business model.

Mike Masnick over at Techdirt explores the long history of such circles of blame, noting that the oil industry doesn't have to pay the automobile industry, and computer makers don't have to pay software and Internet companies.
quote:
You see, these are all separate industries. They may be complementary, but it's up to each one individually to figure out the business models that work. None should be pressured into saving the other from its own missteps.

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pnh102
Reptiles Are Cuddly And Pretty
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pnh102

Premium Member

Of Which Morals Does He Speak...?

quote:
"I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure ..."
Am I the only one who found this quote amusing? Is this the same music industry that continues to promote lawlessness, violence, bigotry and misogyny in its lyrics and now whines that it is on the receiving end of some of these problems now?

Just so anyone knows, I am not someone who believes that "bad" music lyrics actually kill anyone. I'm also not directing these comments at U2. I just find it funny that the same music industry executives who peddle products that promotes such values are now whining about being on the receiving end of said values.