Infinite Path

Lord Mandelson has stated his intent with proposed action in the fight against music piracy.

The creative industries, who claim to be the biggest victim of piracy, have been pushing for change for a long time. Everyone has a different idea about what would be the best course of action.

Lord Mandelson has put his cards on the table and announced that tough sanctions would be imposed on those who regularly flaunt the laws on internet piracy. These sanctions would include the – some may say draconian – measure of turning off the internet connections of those who are most active in their law breaking.

Many have declared this to be a mad proposal, claiming that the highest sanction of turning off connections is too severe. The creative industries are sending mixed messages also. Some say that these sanctions are justified and some say that it is people’s ability to share music that gets their name and work into the public domain.

At the moment, there is a divide in the music industry as many of the big recording artists who have made their fortunes from album sales in the past are quite content with things as they are. Those artists make their money from merchandise and touring. The newer artists, however, claim that they are struggling. They don’t have a reputation to rely on and therefore can’t command high ticket prices for concerts. They need people to be buying recorded music as it is currently their only source of revenue.

Mandelson is likely to face an extensive amount of pressure from both schools of thought but whatever decision is taken, it can be unanimously agreed that free content online cannot go on forever.