Famous British musician Sir Elton John on Thursday openly announced strong opposition to the proliferation of peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing websites and joined calls to “cutoff” the Internet connection of users who were found guilty of illegally sharing music files using P2P platforms.
“The proliferation of this P2P websites and the illegal file-sharing nature of these platforms will have a serious detrimental effect on artists, musicians, and record labels,” Sir John said.
The British music icon stressed that upcoming music acts, young artists, and composers who are not among those who perform on stage, were the ones who will be most affected by the illegal file-sharing.
Earlier, singer Lily Allen has announced her support to anti-P2P advocates, saying that upcoming acts like her will never see the good side of making music if these websites will continue to flourish.
UK Business Secretary Lord Mandelson announced that implementation of the “internet disconnection” policy will help the music industry in its battle against illegal music file-sharing.
The new policy aimed to cut the connection of online users who persistently violate the copyright law by sharing music files over P2P networks.
However, several acts in UK have expressed strong opposition over its implementation, saying that people will actually have access to more acts and music, which will eventually lead to new artists’ success.
Famous British bands like Radiohead and Blur said that the law is ridiculous, saying that claims by the music industry of lost sales due to piracy is simply outrageous and records labels could not even support it with proper documents.
The bands also said that music labels only wanted a “complete and exclusive” control of how they will distribute the music and how much they are going to sell it.
But instead of getting a clearer picture, the issue has now shifted the battle among artists who, in their own rights, expressed their opinions regarding the implementation of the policy.