illegal downloaders should have their internet taken away - u2 manager

[Zoomerang96]

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3265717.ece

what a douche.

paul mac can blow me.

 

[Zoomerang96]

this doesn't surprise me in the slightest, i must say.

it's hilarious how he said the radiohead thing backfired on them. yeah... precisely. and you know this how?

by the interview thom gave last week where he said on average, people paid 4 pounds per copy?

that's net profit.

he just sounds like an angry dinosaur who doesn't get it. it's too late to go back... you can't turn the clock back on something like this. assface.

 

[BVS]

You can't blame people who are in the business of making money for getting upset when people are stealing from them...

Now I'm not saying attack those that are downloading illegally like some suggest, but some kind of compromise needs to be made.

 

[elevated_u2_fan]

this doesn't surprise me in the slightest, i must say.

it's hilarious how he said the radiohead thing backfired on them. yeah... precisely. and you know this how?

by the interview thom gave last week where he said on average, people paid 4 pounds per copy?

that's net profit.

he just sounds like an angry dinosaur who doesn't get it. it's too late to go back... you can't turn the clock back on something like this. assface.

Interesting article about this linked from the one you sent:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3126839.ece

 

[Zoomerang96]

this is a battle they cannot win, so unless they're willing to work with the technology they're going to lose.

it's almost as if people like this expect that a radical, world-wide clamp down will miraculously send cd sales back up to where they were in the 90's.

IT'S OVER. find a new way to deal with it. punishing your fans is the worst possible way to deal with this.

i'm sorry, paul, but i guess deliberately releasing every possible u2 item during the christmas rush/market might not even be enough for you.

 

[vaz02]

Fuck you paul, i pay what ever you like for concert tickets but you will never take away my Internetz.

 

[Dorian Gray]

you are misquoting him. he's saying "serial illegal uploaders" should get a three-strike-you're-out penalty. these are not the average downloader.
before you go attacking someone, take a second to look at what they are saying

 

[Axver]

Hey, McGuinness? Don't fight the tide. Work with it.

The fact he thinks some "three strikes and you're out [of the Internet]" idea would actually work speaks volumes about how much he simply does not get it.

 

[BVS]

Fuck you paul, i pay what ever you like for concert tickets but you will never take away my Internetz.

I love how people think this makes up for everything.

We don't expect anything else for free, except somehow music should be...

 

[Canadiens1131]

FUCK PAUL MCGINNIS!!! IT'S ALL ABOUT RON PAUL!!!!!

 

[redhotswami]

Now... what y'all wanna do? Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers?

FUCK PAUL MCGINNIS!!! IT'S ALL ABOUT RON PAUL!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REycCu49Vvk

u r rong!

 

[Canadiens1131]

Re: Now... what y'all wanna do? Wanna be ballers? Shot-callers?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REycCu49Vvk

u r rong!

Pop culture refrOWNED.

 

[nathan1977]

I love how people think this makes up for everything.

We don't expect anything else for free, except somehow music should be...

Agreed. U2 was one of the early proponents of iTunes, and corralled others in the music industry to get on-board. C'mon, at 99 cents a song, you can't get much cheaper than that.

 

[Lancemc]

Both sides of the debate are usually way out of line. People who just blindly, inconsiderately download gigs of stuff all the time are as giant tools as the corporate big shots who completely disregard the digital marketplace.



Some compromise needs to be made.

 

[indra]

Agreed. U2 was one of the early proponents of iTunes, and corralled others in the music industry to get on-board. C'mon, at 99 cents a song, you can't get much cheaper than that.

Very true, and yet loads of people still don't want to pay it.

I love the people who whine "they are attacking their best customers!" Bullshit. When someone is stealing your product he/she is not a customer.

 

[the tourist]

Even if I downloaded U2 albums which are available for purchase, I would still buy them. *shrugs*

 

[Axver]

Agreed. U2 was one of the early proponents of iTunes, and corralled others in the music industry to get on-board. C'mon, at 99 cents a song, you can't get much cheaper than that.

No, you come on. That's over $10 an album, and what's more, it's in a shitty compressed audio format. I point blank will not pay for audio unless it is lossless.

All I want is lossless audio. I don't need a booklet. I don't need a CD to hold in my hands or a case. Just the music in high quality audio, that's it. I'd also rather buy it directly from the artist than have some middleman make a bit on the side.

If U2 just put their next album on their website for $5 a pop, they'd be raking it in. Nobody else would be taking a cut of the profits, and server space/bandwidth doesn't exactly cost that much. Not to mention the fact it would in no way stop them offering a CD edition for those people who still want a hard copy.

 

[the tourist]

I like amazon mp3. It's all 256 kbps with no drm. Same with iTunes plus.

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

I certainly think that fans ought to buy any readily available commercial release. I've actually stopped going into Music on the Internet because I can't stand when people request tracks they could buy simply and easily.

What's bothered me about U2 in the last few years, though, is that they make it difficult for fans to get new material without buying more than they need on greatests hits or boxed sets. How many of us bought U218 for two songs because iTunes wasn't selling those tracks individually? I'm sorry, but I refused to pay $150 for the Complete U2 when I own every U2 album (and have bought multiple copies of some of them over the years, in fact). People here sent me the songs I really wanted, and I'm not about to feel guilty about that.

U2 has enough clout in the industry that they could help figure out a solution rather than just complaining about the problem and pointing a finger at the ISPs (and by "they" here I mean management). And you know what else? Maybe they ought to be putting some of this energy into figuring out a better ticketing system for the next tour. So many fans ended up having to turn to scalpers for tickets. Maybe that's not as important to them, though, because they get their money no matter who's buying the tickets, right?

I love U2 the band, but sometimes I really hate U2 the business.

 

[Muad'zin]

Suddenly U2's touring schedules make way more sense. McGuinness clearly still lives in the 80's. Where you make a quick tour through Western-Europe and then endlessly tour the US to earn the big money. The fact that the Wall has come down, Asia is rising as the new economic force, the dollar becomes ever more worthless and that the EU has created a market with a common currency rivalling that of the US has clearly escaped him just as much as the true impact of the internet.

And thumbs up on the ticketing complaint! Vertigo was a bloody shambles!

 

[flowerchildH]

I was always under the immpression that Bono had said something along the lines of it not mattering to him if fans illegally downloaded U2 music because it meant that they WANTED to hear their music. Like if you went to a concert and they didn't officially release it. I don't think that downloading for personal benefit is bad or that the band thinks of it in that way. I always thought that they almost supported it for personal gain, as long as you did not buy from or sell to anyone else.

 

[BVS]

Well I think they feel that way about live songs, but I'm not sure if they've ever said that about studio songs.

 

[major_panic]

So... don't download music or Paul McGuinness will come to your house and take your internet away?

Come on, honestly. Someone clearly doesn't understand the reality of the world he lives in, or the enormity of the task he proposes...

 

[Morgoth321]

There should be a distinction between trading bootleg live shows and illegally downloading commercially available material. It's all too easy to do the latter, and I admit that I've done it myself - for U2 and for others. Who hasn't? In terms of principle, I understand where McGuinness is coming from, although if he was speaking on behalf of an up and coming band (rather than one of the most financially successful ever), then his comments would have more of an impact. The problem is that casual downloaders will have no moral qualms about 'stealing' from the likes of U2, the Eagles etc - they're so rich, what difference will my $0.99 make to them? McGuinness as the business face of U2 has to cast himself as the bad guy, and it would be interesting to know what the band members themselves would say on this issue. As usual Paul McG is misquoted, but (as others have already indicated) his sabre-rattling siege mentality isn't that constructive.

I’ve found the following quotes on the internet from band members (sadly, I’ve been able to trace them to specific dates or interviews, although I believe them to come from Elevation Tour promotional interviews in 2001):

“My feeling is that it is cool for people to share our music - as long as no one is making money from the process. We tell people who come to our concerts that they can tape the shows if they want. I think it is cool that people are so passionate about our music.” (Bono)

“The terror of online song-trading and bootlegging that has occurred in the wake of Napster is not something the members of U2 are losing any sleep over. In fact, as long as fans aren’t being exploited and bootleggers aren’t raking in huge money from the practice, it’s a part of the music business they’ve come to accept.” (The Edge)

“We invite people to bootleg our shows. We invite people to make copies, we've no problems with that, but if some guy is gonna make money off the back of this, we're gonna find out where he parks his car.” (Bono)

 

[coolian2]

“My feeling is that it is cool for people to share our music - as long as no one is making money from the process. We tell people who come to our concerts that they can tape the shows if they want. I think it is cool that people are so passionate about our music.” (Bono)

“The terror of online song-trading and bootlegging that has occurred in the wake of Napster is not something the members of U2 are losing any sleep over. In fact, as long as fans aren’t being exploited and bootleggers aren’t raking in huge money from the practice, it’s a part of the music business they’ve come to accept.” (The Edge)

“We invite people to bootleg our shows. We invite people to make copies, we've no problems with that, but if some guy is gonna make money off the back of this, we're gonna find out where he parks his car.” (Bono)

Bet Paul doesn't know they said this

 

[Zoomerang96]

Very true, and yet loads of people still don't want to pay it.

I love the people who whine "they are attacking their best customers!" Bullshit. When someone is stealing your product he/she is not a customer.

you don't get it, i'm sorry.

and 99 cents a song is still outrageous. it should be far less, if anything at all.

the money will have to come on the backs of touring and merchandise. he can yell and scream bloody murder about the fears of technology, but business models do NOT survive by staying the same way.

he doesn't get it, and he's making the rest of the band look stupid.

 

[ramblin rose]

Bet Paul doesn't know they said this

It's clear that all the quotes refer to bootlegging concerts (and to the selling of these by bootleggers), not commercial releases.

 

[ramblin rose]

the money will have to come on the backs of touring and merchandise. he can yell and scream bloody murder about the fears of technology, but business models do NOT survive by staying the same way.

I really don't think touring and merchandising is going to keep the music industry alive.

 

[indra]

you don't get it, i'm sorry.

and 99 cents a song is still outrageous. it should be far less, if anything at all.

the money will have to come on the backs of touring and merchandise. he can yell and scream bloody murder about the fears of technology, but business models do NOT survive by staying the same way.

he doesn't get it, and he's making the rest of the band look stupid.

No I don't get it. I do not get why people think it's ok to steal -- yes steal -- other people's work. You -- and everyone who illegally downloads -- would scream bloody murder if you didn't get paid for your work and you know it. And you sure as hell wouldn't suck up to the people stealing from you either.

If you don't want to pay 99 cents for a song, don't pay it. But if you aren't willing to pay the asking price you do not have any right to the song. If no one buys any music the industry will change. You do have the right to not pay 99 cents for a song; you do not have the right to steal that song.

What is so hard to understand about that?

 

[Zoomerang96]

I really don't think touring and merchandising is going to keep the music industry alive.

there will always be money to be made. always.

but the big companies will have to learn how to be creative about it. to my knowing, their idea of creating cash is by releasing 5 greatest hits packages for every band that's ever had 2 singles.

and indra, that's fine and you're right. we both have the "right" to do as we are, but these arguments have been made since the day radios were first introduced to the general population.

seriously.

it's very tiring to listen to a withering industry bitch and moan for their glory days and resort to such pathetic measures as suing random individuals in order to "send a message". fuck them.

you either embrace the technology at hand or you get left in the dust. it's as simple as that. itunes, and the like are a great start. u2 did a good job getting involved with that (though the ipod advert thing seems a bit more dodgy... that's an issue altogether different).

"illegal" downloading will only continue to grow, it's a world-wide issue. you either embrace it and learn how to deal with it or you get out of the fucking way.