Posted: 18th Jan, 2009 By: MarkJ
The CEO of
UK Music, Feargal Sharkey, has revealed in a Cannes MidemNet conference that the UK music industry has its own concerns about government legislation being used to tackle illegal file sharing (P2P) downloads:
Feargal Sharkey commented: "Any intervention must be designed to embrace new horizons and must be fit and proper for use in a modern world; a modern society and a modern culture. For this industry, regression is not an option. We have learnt from our past mistakes and have no ambition to repeat them. Our future lies ahead not backwards.
Regulation brings a cost to all parties. We all need to be sensitive that the debt we pay for an imposed government solution does not outweigh the benefits and the rewards."
However Sharkey was keen to point out that the pace at which dialogue is turned into constructive action still needed to be quickened. He noted that UK ISPs should be viewed as partners, as opposed to adversaries. This is despite the very public failure of recent talks to reach common ground on the matter earlier in the week (
here).
Meanwhile consumer research agency '
The Leading Question' has published results from a new study conducted with 1300 French, UK and USA music fans. It reveals that 46% would choose an ISP as their number one music service provider. Cable and Satellite TV operators (10%) came second, followed by mobile operators (5%) and handset manufacturers (3%).
Furthermore 64% claimed that they would stop illegal file sharing activity if warned to do so by their ISP, which rose to 76% when threatened with disconnection. In related news the Isle of Man government is preparing to launch a proposal for an ISP-based blanket fee that would cover music licensed downloads, similar to France.