A new group known as the Featured Artists Coalition has brought some 140 UK music artists together to develop a charter of musician rights. In addition to specifying that artists should own their own works, the charter also opposes criminal penalties for those accused of downloading music illegally.
The group does contain some fairly notable people: Annie Lennox, Robbie Williams, Dave Rowntree of Blur, and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead. The group, led by Billy Bragg, plans to meet with Lord Canter who has previously supported criminal proceedings for filesharers.
“What I said at the meeting was that the record industry in Britain is still going down the road of criminalising our audience for downloading illegal MP3s,” Bragg told UK press of The Independent.
“If we follow the music industry down that road, we will be doing nothing more than being part of a protectionist effort. It’s like trying to put toothpaste back in the tube.
“Artists should own their own rights and they should decide when their music should be used for free, or when they should have payment.”
The group also takes issue with the recent YouTube/big content row that has seen UK access to YouTube’s volume of music videos almost entirely disappear over night.
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