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Lloyd Webber: Internet is Somalia of lawless piracy
Benedict Moore-Bridger03.04.09
ANDREW Lloyd Webber has launched a scathing attack on the internet, calling it a "Somalia of unregulated theft and piracy".
The Phantom of the Opera composer blamed internet service providers for facilitating online piracy that he says is "decimating" the music market.
Lord Lloyd-Webber told the House of Lords that ISPs were "feeding off and undermining" the creative industries, warning that the music industry would be the "first to fall" as only one in 20 internet tracks is paid for.
The impresario said it would be a major mistake for the Government to invest billions of pounds in improving the national broadband network until a solution to illegal file sharing can be found.
He said: "Britain's creative industries are not content providers for broadband. They are the experiences that bring consumers to the internet in the first place, and they can only survive in a safe internet world.
"The question that occurs to me is whether in 10 years time Britain will be a place that the Beatles could have emerged from."
Lloyd-Webber said online piracy of film and music could cost 30,000 jobs on top of performers and composers who would lose their livelihood. He said ISPs were part of the problem and "are not going to change without regulation".
Reader views (7)
So I guess that artists are frightened that the gullible punters will be able to sample their offerings for free, before being ripped off at the shows.
Ticket prices for live events are far too high, as are CD, MP3's and DVD's.
Most of their cost is stolen by middlemen in any case !
- Cap, London
The PRS and there like have been secretly demanding money from small business's simply because they listen to a radio at work, this copyright law is allowing these people to extort money without rhyme or reason, there as bad as gangsters in my books and the government needs to put them back in there place's. These artist's get paid fortunes when they make it, but in taking this attitude towards utube small business's etc they are in fact preventing up and coming artists of getting the publicity for there music that they need more then the established names. Google in my opinion has stood up to the PRS and i for one hope they teach these greedy people a good lesson, it is like i make a key for a client then expect payment for each time they use it in the lock it sounds unreasonable doesn't it but thats what the PRS etc is doing and i for 1 think it is wrong and outdated in a modern society, we all have to change our business models its time for the entertainment industry to do the same. In the 70's/80's it was cassettes video and audio now it is file sharing whats the difference? in truth there isn't any difference. STOP ALIENATING YOUR CUSTOMERS!!
- Simon, hemel hempstead
I think Roz nailed it - the internet is forcing the music industry to evolve, essentially. The people who have the greatest vested interest in the previous regime are always going to be those who protest the loudest.
Maybe the Beatles couldn't have done what they did, how they did, in today's environment - but what of tomorrow's incarnation of top bands? Who could have dreamed that the Fab 4 would have become the phenomenon they were, back in their early days? So who is to say what will happen for today's bands?
Evolution, it isn't just bugs and animals - it's society and how it works. It is communication and interaction. The Internet is just another evolutionary force that will find a way to work and which will be exploited for success by performers and enterpreneurs alike in due course.
- Rogan, Irving
How long before a fatwa is proclaimed for Lloyd Webber calling for his death for daring to suggest that Somalia is a lawless and pirate state?
- Adam, Harrow, UK
"The Phantom of the Opera composer ..."
Actually his Dad wrote the majority of it.
Is the poor millionaire losing money? Oh dear!
- Frank, Home Counties, England.
Whilst I condemn all forms of piracy, I appreciate if you could avoid dragging the good name of Somalia into this heinous criminal activity that do not represent the nation. You owe us an appology....
- Aden Ali, Khartoum, Sudan
What price success?! 100 years ago Mr. Lloyd-Webber and the Beatles would only have made money by selling penny song-sheets for the punters to play at home . . .
- Roz, Chamonix, France
