With all the media hype around at the moment for the controversial Digital Economy Bill - I can’t help but think that the record industry who are currently playing the ‘poor us’ cards from their multimillion pound offices in central London and Manhattan have brought this all on themselves. Before downloading became mainstream record company’s would happily charge the ‘fans’ £12 - £15 an album. With the average pocket money at that time being between £5 - £10 a week an album was a serious investment, so it is no surprise that it was the teenagers and college student’s that really took this technology to their hearts and embraced illegal downloads. I can’t help but think that if the record companies and music shops were fair from the start with their pricing then downloading illegally would not have become so popular.
Despite that fact that I’m delighted to pay 79p a song on iTunes, at just 10p more than a mars bar I actually think it is a fair and reasonable price, I can’t help but oppose a bill which is essentially written by the music industry for the music industry! It's becoming clear that it won't get the proper scrutiny that is required for a bill of this importance due to the rush towards election – it is effectively legislation on the hoof!
Should the bill become law one of the biggest worry for me is that it could spell the end for Wi-Fi hot spots, with cafes, pubs, airports and hotels being told that if anyone downloads illegally on their connection they will be held accountable, meaning that Wi-Fi hot spots will probably disappear and innocent business could be prosecuted. This also could cause a similar problems for homes with wireless routers who are not password protecting their connection, when I am at home there are at least 10 other Wi-Fi connection that I can piggy-back on to and illegally download files if I want to with no ramification for myself.
Putting all this to one side what troubles me most is that the music industry is supposed to the filled with the most creative minds of our generation (Jedward aside) and the best solutions they can come up with to encourage people not to illegally download it threaten them! Very worrying!