Rich Fiscus
4 Jun 2008 22:56
Paul McGuinness, manager of rock superstars U2, is once again going after ISP's, calling them "shoplifters" and accusing them of turning a blind eye to music piracy because it makes them money by selling broadband internet subscriptions.
"Cable operators, ISPs, device manufacturers, P2P software companies -- companies that have used music to drive vast revenues from broadband subscriptions and from advertising. They would argue that they have been neutral bystanders to the spectacular devaluation of music. I don't believe that is true," said McGuinness.
You may recall that he made similar accusations earlier this year at the MIDEM music industry trade show in Cannes, France. This time around he was once again speaking to a music industry audience in Hong Kong's Music Matters conference.
McGuinness claimed that ISPs are already capable of taking action. He said "The modern history of the Internet is chockfull of examples of ISPs intervening in the traffic on their networks when it suits them,"
As an example he cited Comcast's recent experience with P2P filtering to block BitTorrent filtering. He conveniently forgot to mention their subsequent change of heart after the FCC made it clear that they were prepared to take action against the company over the matter.