U2 Manager Hates Your ISP
U2 manager Paul McGuinness had strong words for ISPs recently - while speaking at the MIDEM music market conference in France, McGuinness asserted that ISPs ought to snoop on their customers and dump those who download music illegally. Moreover, ISPs are at fault for fostering the belief that they are not responsible for what people do with the internet (which, in fact, they are not). He says:
"If you were a magazine advertising stolen cars, handling the money for stolen cars and seeing to the delivery of stolen cars, the police would soon be at your door."
Analogies are fun. I would counter with this one: If you were an automobile manufacturer held accountable for the crimes committed by those who drive your cars, the prosecution would have a pretty tough time.
Forgetting for a moment the Orwellian horrors that spring to mind at the thought of my ISP deciding what I can and cannot do on my computer, there's a huge big flaw in McGuinness' reasoning: ISPs in no way "advertise stolen cars" vis-a-vis music. Last I checked, my Earthlink bill did not come with a flier advocating the use of BitTorrent to steal music from Bono. That's just flat-out backward. Also, ISPs don't "handle the money" any more than Ford "patrols the highway" - cars drive, data flows, and shit happens.
Finding a way to stem the flow of illegal music traffic is a totally appropriate goal for the music industry. Forcing another industry to act as a police force is, at the very least, less appropriate. The FCC agrees, as their net neutrality policy remains in effect - although its mandate that ISPs should be unable to dictate how their customers use bandwidth may be under attack from within, which sounds even scarier.
U2 manager blames ISPs for Internet piracy [Electronista]
tiny dancer
Posted to Hot Stuff, In the News on 29 January 2008
· Comments (3)
Other stuff like this: isp, midem, piracy, u2
I've always hated the argument McGuiness presents here. You here it more and more these days. But it's just not true. ISP's do not receive any advertising dollars from illegal P2P networks. They don't receive any advertising dollars, as doing so would probably compromise their regulated Net Neutrality. They only receive money from their subscribers, so their only commitment should be to the subscribers, not the flexing of some other industry.
This kind of talk is a fine example of why I'm sad that U2 3D is going to be at my theatre for a while....
Oh how I LOATH U2 and all who sail in her!
Not to mention that this is simply based on greed and by the looks of that photo he could use a lesson in greed management to possibly stave off the incoming heart attack.