Musicans file legal brief supporting file sharing

March 2, 2005

DamnedIfIknow used our news submit to tell us "Oh my God! Common sense.....what is the world coming to? :)"

Looks like some of the older musicians and groups that can afford to rock the boat are speaking up. They have formed a legal group to represent them and are offering a counterpoint to the labels lament that P2P is destroying the music business. What these artists are saying is they also think copyrights should be honored, but they also know that P2P offers an alsternative means to offer music to the masses legally.

"Musicians are not universally united in opposition to peer-to-peer file sharing" as the major records companies claim, according to a draft of the group's court filing. "To the contrary, many musicians find peer-to-peer technology . . . allows them easily to reach a worldwide online audience. And to many musicians, the benefits of this . . . strongly outweigh the risks of copyright infringement."

The arguments are a stark counterweight to an aggressive push by the major recording and movie studios, and hundreds of musicians, actors and composers, to persuade the Supreme Court that file sharing damages the livelihoods of artists by robbing them of proper compensation for their work.

It seems obvious to anyone outside the influence of the music labels that P2P is more than just a threat to copyright. It presents a model that is a threat to the stranglehold of the labels. In this day and age, they are no longer needed. Of course, they can be used in the traditional manner to promote a grop or musician, but it's common knowledge that the content creators will profit very little or at all by the time they make payment to the "company store". So I can see these folks point in that they don't want P2P killed!

Source: MSNBC