U2 manager finds what he's looking for: French 3-strikes law

U2 manager Paul McGuinness takes to the op-ed page to make his case for France's proposed new "graduated response" approach to online copyright infringement, which he calls a model for the world.

By Nate Anderson | Last updated April 8, 2009 12:35 PM CT



Hey, file-swappers—who's going to ride your wild horses? Paul McGuinness, long-time manager of Irish rock band U2, says that it's going to be the French government. And that's a magnificent thing.

McGuinness has been a wanderer these last few years, going where the streets have no name in his quest to get one step closer to a miracle drug that might help the vertiginous music business walk on despite rampant P2P file-sharing. (One wishes he had also found the time to convince Bono that lines like "Force quit and move to trash!" and "Restart and reboot yourself!" have no place on a U2 album. Ah, well; some lyrics are better than others.)

But, for the first time, McGuiness has found what he's looking for in the new French Création et Internet "graduated response" rule. Writing in a lengthy Guardian op-ed, McGuinness said that U2 wasn't the issue: he's concerned about "the future of a new generation of artists who aspire to be the next U2—and about the whole environment in which that aspiration can be made possible."

The future is French
The French law gives that country "moral leadership" in the P2P debate and, like Fox News, it is "fair and balanced." When McGuinness looks at the world, he can't help but hope that the Gallic model of forced Internet disconnection for repeat copyright infringement spreads faster than an electrical storm or a squall of summer rain.

Though not directly addressing arguments about proportionality, McGuinness does see file-swapping as a threat not just to the "music business," but to musicians (the two are certainly not synonymous). "The world of music is rapidly changing, and new business models are developing fast, but all of this progress is threatened in a world where 95% of music downloads see no reward going to the creator," he writes. "You only have to look at the sharp fall in the share of new album releases accounted by French artists in the last four years to see the damage that is being done."

In the end, McGuinness sees no "viable economic alternative" to tough graduated response rules. It's easy to point to bands like Radiohead that have made huge piles of cash from nontraditional distribution, but McGuinness argues that such acts can only get to that stage through years of both touring and record albums.

"The only other proposals offered look like solutions produced for the laboratory, not for the market place," he says. "A system of escalating warnings, with the ultimate deterrent of temporary internet disconnection for the wilful lawbreaker, is a transparent and proportionate way of influencing consumer behaviour. And it has absolutely nothing to do with a surveillance society."

And he rightfully points out that the regime represents a huge step forward over mass lawsuits, something McGuinness himself has "always strongly opposed." In 2008, though, he wanted to use "moral pressure" to "shame [ISPs] into wanting to help us." But it's a new year, and in 2009, McGuinness is happy to add some government muscle to his idea.

So, unless Yahweh will send his angels to strike file-swappers with some unforgettable fire, those mofos at their computers need to be taught a practical French lesson. In this, at least, McGuinness is certainly in step with Big Music.

When France approved the main section of Création et Internet last week, global music trade group IFPI couldn't have been happier. Boss John Kennedy said in a statement, "The French government has taken a decisive step to protect artists and creators, setting an example to the rest of the world. The great thing about this French initiative is that it will result in very sensible and achievable actions by ISPs to reduce piracy in a way that is overwhelmingly preventative and not punitive."

Getting the rest of the world to go along may prove more difficult, though. Governments work in mysterious ways, but so far, few have been open to enforcing disconnection. The UK has taken it off the table. New Zealand is rewriting its graduated response law from scratch. The US isn't even contemplating such a thing, and the European Parliament has tried on multiple occasions to make such a plan illegal.

In McGuinness' view, though, the industry is stuck in a moment it can't get out of, and the French model offers the only real exit.

source: arstechnica