James Delahunty
30 Oct 2004 21:18
UK digital music firm Wippit are calling upon the music industry to boycott major firms it accuses of fueling illegal P2P services by paying the services for advertisement. On Wippit's list include well known names such as Vodafone, O2, NTL, Renault, MSN subsidiaries Expedia and bCentral, First Direct, Halifax and Natwest. Many of these companies have claimed that their advertisements appearances on P2P related sites and services was a mistake and caused by human error. Services related to the eDonkey network were the most common.
Wippit CEO, Paul Myers stated that these companies give "financial oxygen" to "pirate services" and "copyright violators". "If you're supporting a company that is not supporting you, or they are supporting a business that aims to put you out of business by giving your property away for free, follow me by dumping them until they change their ways." he said in an open letter addressing the music industry.
Developing and running P2P services for now is still legal in most countries and it is legal for major companies to pay these services for advertisement. However, when you remember that most of the companies listed above use music from major record labels for their TV advertisements, you can predict their reactions to this claim made by Wippit.
Source:
The Register