Jari Ketola
18 Jun 2000 14:01
Courtney Love, the lead singer and head of the band Hole sympathizes with Lars Ulrich (drummer from Metallica). In her Essay on HoleMusic.com she says, that she has nothing against Napster and other file-sharing utilities as such.
``It's not piracy when kids swap music over the Internet using Napster or Gnutella or Freenet or iMesh or beaming their CDs into a My.MP3.com or MyPlay.com music locker,´´ Love says, and continues ``It's piracy when those guys that run those companies make side deals with the cartel lawyers and label heads so that they can be "the labels' friend," and not the artists'.´´
Unlike others have reported, Love is not taking a stand against file sharing. Actually it's quite the opposite - she's all for it. What she is against, however, are the record companies, who instead of taking advantage of this opportunity, take all effort to squash it altogether. In the process the only ones really getting hurt are the recording artists.
``There were a billion music downloads last year, but music sales are up. Where's the evidence that downloads hurt business? Downloads are creating more demand,´´ Love points out.
Make sure you read the whole manifesto on HoleMusic.com!