U2 unplugged: McGuinness restarts illegal downloading debate

U2 MANAGER and unofficial fifth member Paul McGuinness made a rare foray into the spotlight this week with an opinion piece for French conservative daily Le Figaroon the thorny issue of illegal music downloads.

In it McGuinness praises France, and in particular president Nicolas Sarkozy, for its proposed "creation and internet" law, which would see people who repeatedly download music illegally having their broadband connection cut off.

Also known as the three strikes rule - users receive two warnings before having their account terminated - it is being implemented here by Eircom following an out-of-court settlement with the big four music labels.

In the piece, McGuinness says he "has not heard of any viable economic alternative to the system now being introduced, committing ISPs [ internet service providers] to helping protect copyright".

This is not a new riff for McGuinness. A speech he made at the Midem music industry conference in Cannes last year attracted worldwide attention.

That speech didn't pull any punches, saying that the technology industry's "snouts" have been feeding for free at "our trough" and suggesting that at the heart of the "entrepreneurial, hippy values" of Silicon Valley is a disregard for the value of music.

While McGuinness prefaced his Figaro piece by saying it wasn't about the future of U2, "but it is about the future of a new generation of artists who aspire to be the next U2", one has to wonder why he penned what is effectively a defence of the big four record labels.

At a time when banks are widely being pilloried for greed, record labels still succeed in giving their artists an advance, which is taken off the top of any revenues before deducting every expense conceivable and finally sharing a percentage of royalties in the mid-teens with the artist.

In response to falling album sales, major labels have now started pushing "360 deals" where the label gets a cut of revenues from all band activities eg, merchandising, touting etc, a tactic that McGuinness described as "dreadful".

McGuinness's efforts proved to be in vain anyway.

The French National Assembly yesterday rejected the proposal on a show of hands from the 36 members of the 577-member legislature who bothered to turn up.

It seems French politicians know a vote-losing proposal when they see one.