Bono
a.k.a. O Nob (shorthand for "what a dick!")
Bono accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy
U2 frontman and save-the-world mouthpiece Bono has hit out at internet service providers for failing to clamp down on illegal file sharing over their networks. The rockstar attacked ISPs in a New York Times op ed piece yesterday. Bono warned the film industry to beware of the rise of illegal file sharers online, whom he claimed …
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South Park...
South Park said it best when they pointed out that Bono is, in fact, the World's Largest Shit.
Bonno wants to STFU
when he actually knows what he is talking about is when he should actually open his mouth....
music piracy has been going on a lot longer than file shareing.... but its only now that they can actually think they can do somthing about it because its under there noses....
how many of us remember bprrpwing there mates brand new dire straits "brothers in arms" lp and recording it onto tape.... it was still one of the best selling albums, but everyone and there dog had a so called pirate copy....
...but as Graham Coxon once said ...
"Why don't we hear any Dire Straits anymore ? ... Because they were shite."
The Bonobo...
can just go back to saving the world and shove his ideas of totalitarian internet control and monitoring up his Liffey-hole.
As much as I do not condone piracy the world can do without assholes like him.
I know it's not true but I loved the comment on /. about this story:
<quote>
Hey. I watched Letterman last night and Robin Williams was being interviewed. He told a story about this floater that he was brought back down to earth in Scotland. Basically Bono started clapping and during the clapping he said "Every time I clap another whale dies". From the back of the auditorium came "Well then, fucking stop clapping!".
</quote>
Fixed that for you
"opined the multi-millionaire, tax avoiding Irish rocker speaking from one of his 5 luxury homes"
Well, if it will upset Bonio..
..then I'd better download a torrent client.
Massive hypocrite gobshite that he is.
hey, twat-o
does twat-o just not want to sell another record in his life or something?
we should have a law along the lines of "if x people agree, then person y will be executed."
I can think of a lot of people that would have problems there. Paris because ...
Bonio accuses ISPs of 'reverse Robin Hooding' over piracy
Presumably multi-millionaire alleged musician and expert on everything Bonio is in favour of all of us who have never downloaded a piece of music, legally or illegally, to pay the government tax on our ISP charges to make him even richer?
Shut the hell up.
You know what hurts the creators?
paying them 0.8% of the Profits from their music, if that.
oh dear!
oh dear, the self proclaimed global conscience is cross with our money grubbing ISP's who don't feel sorry for the music business going to hell. the argument that movie files are still too big is complete and utter crap, most people in the western world have bandwidth to spare and could download movies in a matter of minutes. no matter how much good this man does, i cannot help but be annoyed by his self-righteousness.
Really?
" "The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of 24 in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free," he cautioned. "
Most people just record it from the TV and fast forward the ads. That is as good as free.
As for U2, I hear their stuff on the radio, for free (or through my licence fee), and have no desire to buy it or download it, as I am sick to death of it by the time it is actually released.
I do hate to say it though, he actually has a point for once. The ISPs do seem happy to take the money, but is it really their place to be decrypting traffic?
I for one welcome our now poverty-ending-tax-dodging-sun-glasses-wearing-Irish-overlords.
Paying the ISPs
Of course the ISPs are happy to take your money. They provide the bandwidth, you use it. Simple(s).
Bono being right? God, that would be a first. He wants to draw an analogy between the losses made by movie studios and the profits made by ISPs. Did nobody stop to consider that maybe the online world is more *interesting* and people would rather fill MySpace full of rubbish and Twitter every inane thought that enters their heads than to sit and watch movies? Or does Bono think that *everybody* downloads movies? Truth is some people download movies, yes, but for the majority of us, an alternative source of entertainment has come along.
Oh, and one small geeky point. It doesn't really matter if you can download a series of 24 in 24 seconds or 24 minutes or hours... because it plays back at the same speed...
it hurts who again?
"the people it hurts are the creators - in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales"
so, music piracy hurts those who we wouldn't even know about if it wasn't for music piracy, right? those whose live we wouldn't attend if we hadn't listened to their album(s) beforehand? well, i suppose that taking a jab at the hand that feeds him is too much, even for the world's savior.
this is the kind of excuse i don't want to hear when the sole reason the album whose release i've been waiting for the longest is being held because of record label issues.
Let them eat Bonios
OMFG - how long will it be before someone in NuLab decides to make him "Internet Compliance Tsar"?
He should just shut the fuck up - he is of no relevance to anything or anybody.
STFU Bono, FOAD
About everything you have ever spouted forth your ill thought out shite about, you useless turd of a man.
BS
Mr Bono,
Culture should be free. It is a human right far more important than copy"right".
And who says artists should make millions? Is it fair for someone to record a song 30 years ago and still make profits on it today? Copyright is a privilege (not really a right at all) given to you by society, and by God, society should have the power to also take it away!!
If you are so concerned about the up-and-coming artists that piracy is *supposed* to be hurting, you should consider donating some of your extensive fortune to helping them. If piracy is hurting anyone, it is the megaliths, the massive corporations leeching off the artists. But, is that even the case, when studies show record profits in recent years?
Well you know what needs to be done Boner
He of all people should know how much his record label makes from his music in comparison to how he himself makes. The answer is clear and simple wake-up the big four, get them to offer a decent legal download service and stop ripping us off.
Record label greed is what freetards are rebelling against, the fact it only hurts the artists is irrelevant to them. People would rather steal than be willingly exploited
Don't Make Me Laugh
I'd be interested in knowing how Bonio has become such an expert on file sharing and its effects. There is, of course, the possibility that, if file sharing is suppressed, it will help to increase his own income so it is very interesting to see that he has come up with an angle on this one whereby it looks like he's being sympathetic to others despite the obvious (potential) benefits to himself. If he's that worried about fledgling songwriters then perhaps he should devote more of his time and vast wealth to helping to develop them instead of coming out with the same old U2 style songs again and again.
I'd also be intrigued to know if anyone has actually surveyed file sharers to determine their habits. I'm aware, for example, of people for whom file sharing is a way to see whether they like something, much like in the way that, when I was a youth, we would swap LPs at school. If we liked it, it would be added to our list of things to buy, but there was seldom any intention to just rip it off and keep it. Maybe it's different for the youth of today, but someone really ought to be looking at this angle since, if this is common, suppression of file sharing could make things even worse for the music industry.
<untitled>
http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/2347/125/
Bono ..... he's a built-up heeled genius.
Bono sez:
"The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of 24 in 24 seconds."
Get back to moaning about the environment and write some decent songs for once you self religious [ill-informed] fuckwit!
Bandwidth...
" 'The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of 24 in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free,' he cautioned."
Immutable what now? This is news to me... I've had (approximately) 10Mbps cable Internet for about 6 years now and there's no apparent upgrades planned. Which suits me just fine as 10Mbps is plenty fast enough.
And I know he was being hyperbolic, but I seriously doubt that any ISP is going to give consumers 300MB/sec bandwidth any time soon.
Bono, seriosly...
Shut the fuck up. You’re just another Geldof, a self service publicity attracting has been.
You weren’t moaning when all the people under the sun were buying your albums them taping them were you. But now, oh begorra, there's a new crusade for you to stick your unwanted, ill-educated opinionated nose into.
Tell me bono, what IS P2P? How does it work? How is it different from the halcyon days of copying albums and tapes. I'll tell, because, then, U2 were good, now U2 are old has beens' trying desperately to come to turn with the fact that these days your music isn’t listened to by the masses. In fact, a quick shout around the 90-120 12-18 years olds here shows that almost none of them have heard of U2 or care!!!
Quite frankly, I’d rather stick wasps up my arse than listen to your inane prattling. Twat.
Hey cornz 1...
I know where your coming from, though as painful as listening to U2 is Im not sure I would go quite that far.
"Quite frankly, I’d rather stick wasps up my arse than listen to your inane prattling. Twat."
Point well made though.
Bono, thank you for the music.....
...... It's the only way I've kept my ratio up!
Bollocks
Oh the irony of the media industry calling the ISP industry "rich" whilst portraying itself as losing out.
ISPs have a pretty hard time of it due to the established single-sum business model. They oversell what they own and then a minority of their customers eat most of the bandwidth. They live on slim profit margins (especially in the UK, largely as a result of BT) and I would go so far as to say piracy hurts ISPs more than it hurts the music industry.
Pretty sure new artists are the ones losing out the least on this. In my experience people are far more willing to buy smaller artist's tracks than bigger ones, moving on from that piracy can actually help smaller artists as it gets their music heard by a larger audience resulting in more fans who may well buy or attend gigs in the future.
It all smells a bit Lily Allen blog-ish to me.
Another UnPC RC Ranting Raver.... Sub Prime Ministerial Wannabe a Leader
What a pretentious hypocritical little prig, he is.
Let that be a lesson to you, children. Too much easy money eats away at your brains and decent common sense.
Crikey, there goes the New Year's Resolution already, shot down in Flames, for I thought, and had planned, to be extra especially nice to everybody this year.... :-) Ah well, I guess I will not be alone in that journey .
because theres no middlemen making money in the music industry
http://www.negativland.com/albini.html
i think this article perfectly describes whats wrong with the music industry, written by a producer of one of nirvana's albums. the TLDR version is basiclly "label gives you an advance out of which you pay studio/legal/etc fee's . you pay back this money to the label out of your 10% royalty while the label still keeps 90%)
course bono's right i mean pracy really hurts all those poor simon cowells with no musical ability but who bring us all the fresh new acts who dont alll sound the same and arn't manufactured at all no sireee
What utter arse gravy...
Fuck off Bono you self righteous prick.
Join the UK Pirate Party here...
http://www.pirateparty.org.uk/
This from a man ...
whose last decent record was "The Unforgettable Fire", and yes, I was there.
Dear Bono
Dear Bono,
Shut up.
Yours, everyone.
PS. Go back to Ireland and pay your taxes some time, you might gain some credibility.
What this moron fails to mention is that many upcoming and indie artists can only get their music known by file sharing, and that file sharers purchase more music than non file sharers. They just don't purchase U2 music.
FFS
The failure of the major labels to provide a service that people want and to monetise the new media as it emerges is 100% the fault of those major labels. Not the file sharers, not the the ISP, not you are me; it's their own bloody fault.
"Free" (often illegal, but not always) only sprung up because people could not get what they wanted (or at a price they were willing to pay). "Free" is also usually DRM free, something anyone with half a brain wants. Idiotic licensing restrictions, artificial barriers to trade (region locking etc), aggressive and illegal DRM attacks (the rootkit fiasco) are all examples of how Big Labels just don't get it.
iPlayer is a good start, but not nearly enough. Spotify looks good, but I am nt sure how much longer it can last without running ads (got nothing against ads, so long as I don't have to pay).
I will *pay* to get the content I want. Really, I will. If you are smart enough to make it available to me. Why can't I watch Hulu? Some pen-pushing accountant-cum-lawyer with no brain said so. Same reason I can't watch Adult Swim. Just idiocy. I will pay for access (advert free - a la BBC) or they can cut the feed with adverts (free access to me). Either way, I don't mind.
But will they do this? No. Too busy throwing money at lawyers and chasing a business model that has died, often forcing those of us who missed an episode of <whatever> on to the illegal sites just to get a hold of it. Or because some piece lawyer-turdling has decreed that USA-ians can see a thing but the rest of the world is not allowed.
Stupid, just bloody stupid.
Two faced
Are we really supposed to believe that the young, musically intense Paul Hewson didn't have bootlegged recordings of bands in his collection? I mean, come on.......
Pay some tax, ya fecker
When Bono starts paying his taxes in Ireland, rather than using some foreign tax haven, then I might listen to him. Other than that - "feck off!"
Re: Pay some tax, ya fecker
I might listen to him if he recorded something worthwhile. Until then I'd rather he stopped making a noise, whichever orifice it's emanating from.
Of course in his eyes, we're all just thieving proles who should be tugging our forelocks to our lords and betters. He obviously uses the same PR department as EA Games.
Books are even smaller as downloads
Don't see that the publishing industry has been crippled by illegal downloading yet
No way!
I am not going to buy for the 5th time the cd titled Joshua Tree just because I scratched it.
Hell no!
Also I am unable to find their stuff since the biggest music seller in my area FYE removed most american music with that of hispanic music and this isn't even the south near the border town.
I am near Washington D.C.!!!!!
How dare you treat my town in this manner!
lies
Wasn't 2009 the biggest year ever for gross film profits and also the biggest year of the single?
Greed about the so-called lost sales drives this rubbish. But at least more people are turning away from idiots like this muppet.
[Title]
I've honestly only ever 'pirated' about 5 or 6 songs copied off Youtube, but when you get rich, self-obsessed buffoons decrying the disgraceful free speech society we live in and instead hailing China as an example to the world it really makes me want to pirate any of their songs I ever want. Only problem is that (with the exception of Lily Allen who lets face it is as close to mass-produced music as there's ever likely to be so her opinions don't really matter) I thankfully have the sense to not like any of their music anyway.
Let's see
Piracy has resulted in the price of the average Music CD/Album dropping to less than 50% of the price it was 7 or so years ago.
DVD copies of films and Boxed sets of TV shows are also cost much less than they used to.
Are the middle men who reap most of the reward from music sales and film rental/sales making a loss? A reduction in profit is not a loss despite claims to the contrary. No they are still making a healthy profit. Claims of billions in lost revenue due to piracy, whilst a healthy profit is still being maintained only confirm that the product was way over priced in the first place.
Before piracy the consumer was ripped off for as much money as the market would allow. Piracy has has changed this and the rich parasites who used to fleece the consumer now find themselves having to offer a value for money product. My heart bleeds.
There was a time when a new artist had to sign their soul away for the promotion and marketing that an established record label could provide for their music. This promotion by established labels is becoming less important as other avenues aided by the development of Internet technology, especially user generated content paves the way for a more democratic appraisal of the quality of that music. Record labels continue to sign artists that they believe will sell a lot of records and make them oodles of cash such that they stick to the tried and trusted formulaic banality which disgraces popular music culture.
Some musicians make music for the sheer pleasure of it, to share ideas and feelings. They are happy that their music touches souls, the financial rewards are secondary although not to be sniffed at. And if the financial rewards put a roof over the head, food on the table and pay for a few luxuries all the better. I do have sympathy for the struggles of this kind of musician.
Then there are those who are not actually musicians nor talented at all, yet they are pretty to look at and have the backing of top flight producers and engineers. They see music as a way to riches and fame. This is where most of the money is made, made from the sale of glossy packaged drivel designed, written and produced with the sole intention of separating the sheep from their pay packets. I have no sympathy at all for the so called musicians and producers at this level. Any failure here is heart warming.
Bah!
"Immutable Laws of Bandwidth?"
Wait, is he talking about only downloading the intelligent, well-conceived parts of a season of "24"? Because, if he is, well, you could do that now on a dial-up connection using a v90 modem.
He may have a point but..
"the people it hurts are the creators - in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us"
Surely fledgling bands will not have huge sales anyway as no one has heard of them yet. In my view, the poeple who might lose out are the established well known bands, but then music is one of the few professions where you can do a job and get paid every time someone listens to/looks at your work for ever..
Bono you are full of self-serving shit.
>""the people it hurts are the creators - in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and T-shirt sales""
Bull crap. The *real* struggling young artists don't have fucking recording contracts, you dick. There are a million times more great musicians struggling away undiscovered playing small pubs and local gigs than there are the tiny minority who get signed up by one of the labels whose interests you really represent. And it's precisely those small bands and solo artists who are the ones who have taken to the internet with the greatest enthusiasm and benefited the most from it, because suddenly they have a world wide audience instead of having to grind away for years "paying their dues" at small local gigs and hoping to one day get discovered and offered a recording deal, and that's precisely why so very many of them are utterly in favour of the sharing of music and put so much of their own music out there themselves.
You speak for the tiny and already-privileged minority. If those few new musos signed to contracts now want to renegotiate the terms of the shitty deal that they were stupid and gullible enough to accept when the record company dangled the carrot in front of them, they should bloody well renegotiate it between themselves and their record companies and leave the entire rest of society the hell out of it. The notion that we should install a Chinese style absolute central control and censorship system just for the sake of one tiny subsection of one industry is the most blatantly facetious idiocy I've heard on the subject so far, and the fact that you can hold up this odious suggestion without apparently the least self-awareness of how offensive your suggestion is (Hey Bono, didn't you used to be involved in all that Free Tibet stuff? You fucking hypocritical dickend) just shows how utterly directed by financial self-interest to the point of complete blindness to what you're saying you have become.
In summary: you can shove your overreaching rent-seeking demands up your fat and overpaid arse.
The myth of the underground
the best artists I have heard over the last few years have been of exactly the unsigned type you describe. But they're not enjoying a world-wide audience, not noticeably more than they would have before at any rate. They're giving away their music in the hope it will get heard, but by and large it doesn't. Now you will doubtless have exciting stories about these big internet hits- Sandy Thom, The Arctic Monkeys, whoever, and that's all great but those are all cunning Record Label/Management coups designed to create the impression of an underground music scene when really there isn't one. I can think of a few people who have managed to scrape a living with independent music through amazing dedication and hard graft, but I don't think they're making anything like what they could with a strong record label behind them.
Bono may be kind of a dick and a terrible songwriter but he sees the music industry from the inside ( and he did try helping out smaller bands in the past, he was just not that great of an A&R man so Hothouse Flowers, An Emotional Fish and any other signings to Mother seemed to largely vanish without trace ) and he has some idea what is going on there.
The way you hear about bands is because they are promoted by someone with money to spend. That may be a record label or a management team or whoever, but by and large the money in question comes from a record label. And they only have money to spend because they are selling or licencing music. As the amount of music they sell goes down, so does the money they can spend promoting new artists- because these labels are businesses and as anyone who understands businesses will know, a safe bet with an established brand is far more reliable than a wild gamble with a slim chance of success, so the funding for new acts gets cut and the new signings drop away.
If everyone did things by word of mouth and secret underground pixie dust then everyone would be listening to some of the hundreds of brilliant but almost unknown bands across the country and the world. That would be great, but it's not going to happen any time soon and as long as there is no money in it for them ( for the musicians I know their hobby is an expense and unlikely to change into anything else ) even the most brilliant bands will play a few shows, record a few songs and vanish. That doesn't sound like a creative utopia to me, but then I don't object to paying for something other people have put years of work into so I guess I'm way behind the curve on this one.
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