Direct Your Hate… This Way
by botherer on Feb.29, 2008, under Rants
Today’s most vile human being is… Feargal Sharkey!
Formerly the lead singer of the Undertones, and formerly worth oxygen, the appalling cretin said this to The Register, when defending the role of copyright for musicians, and opposing sharing of music:
“Invariably, it’s artists and creators who are at the sharp end of this food chain, and they’re the ones that will get to the stage that they’ll give up and go and do something else – because they have to pay the rent, pay the gas bill and feed themselves, buy shoes, and deal with all the things normal people expect to deal with in life. So people have to realise there’s an implication in this.
There’s been all this play about FairTrade coffee and FairTrade sugar – but what about FairTrade bloody music?”
This sell-out corporate shill just compared having his album downloaded with living as a slave in a developing nation. I’m lost for words to describe how utterly, poisonously foul that is.
Nevermind the extensive stupidity of making an argument about people expecting to get paid “at the end of the week”, in defense of an industry body that’s currently fighting to have decades of extra copyright for artists who did their week’s work over fifty years ago, and still believe they are entitled to infinite profit for eternity.
The interesting point he makes, which is hopefully true, is that when sharing music does finally destroy the recording industry, and it becomes recognised as the strangling evil on music that it has been for the last one hundred years, most people will walk away. And thank goodness. That will be the most glorious day. I cannot wait for 90% of musicians to stop, leaving only the 10% who are in it for reasons that matter.
A couple of weeks ago, the equally viciously stupid Roger Daltry stated (without irony) that thousands of musicians had “no pensions and rely on royalties”. And therefore they should be entitled to perpetual profit from work they did decades earlier. Um? So if I don’t get around to setting up a pension, do I get this too? No? Oh, it’s only musicians who are special enough that if they’re too stupid to have arranged a pension, they deserve special rights? I see.
And these guys are winning the debate. It’s terrifying. But the good news is, Feargal Sharkey will always have made that comment about Fair Trade, and even when the RIAA and BPI own the copyright on our own circulation systems, he’ll be the despicable human being who said that. Well done Sharkey – look what you’ve become.
February 29th, 2008 on 17:32
Excellent. This is the sort of stuff I want from the Walkerblog.
February 29th, 2008 on 17:42
Hmm.
I’m not annoyed at Sharkey at all, but not because I agree with him. I’m mostly not annoyed because he just appears to be terribly misguided.
I mean, unless I’ve got it completely wrong, when we talk about “FairTrade” we’re talking about everyone in the supply chain being paid a fair price, so the man at the end, who picks the beans/whatever, makes a living wage. And that kind of thing relies on the corporations, who tend to do their best to make sure the man at the end doesn’t, step up and, you know, stop being evil.
If Sharkey was really talking about FairTrade he’d be asking the record companies to pay everyone a fair wage (and as we know, they tend not to.) Instead he’s talking some nonsense not related to anything, the poor soul.
February 29th, 2008 on 18:12
Don’t poor-soul him. He’s simply parroting RIAA propaganda. They cry about the “artists” whilst simultaneously screwing them over. This is just another in a long line of disgraceful corporate shills, starting with Bob Dylan and his demand for infinite copyright, and his ludicrous claim that, had he realised that he wouldn’t receive royalties 70 years after his death rather than the mere 50 he has in the US now, he might not have written his songs.
February 29th, 2008 on 18:21
He may have muddled his point somewhat with a poor comparison, but still seems to me that the relationship between record studios and musicians has huge results for the music and the public, and unfortunatly I dont know enough about the topic to be able to comment on where I stand on the issue. This is made worse when my morality is further confused by royalties…
February 29th, 2008 on 21:45
Yes, the relationship between the record studios and musicians has huge results for the music and the public. As does the relationship between a prostitute and her pimp.
March 1st, 2008 on 06:37
Quite interestingly, the record companies have accidentally forgotten to pay the artists any of the money they’ve sued out of people on behalf of artists.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/02272008/business/infringement__99428.htm
It appears that, even when you start with hundreds of millions of dollars (the $270m Napster case is mentioned), once you deduct legal fees there’s barely anything left.
March 1st, 2008 on 10:51
Er, no. It’s writers too, as I’m sure you know. I’ve got no objections to any artistic endeavour picking up a percentage of the profit if their work really takes off, it’s a good incentive to keep decent creators in the game. I entirely agree that the current copyright system is fucked, but my line where the fucking begins is any time the record company is still profiting massively when the artist’s been dead for decades. So much of music comes inspired from the cultural well, it’s so very petty that they can’t see you must put something back.
March 1st, 2008 on 18:15
Fairtrade videogame criticism required. Will pay (organic) peanuts to monkeys.
March 1st, 2008 on 20:47
“I’ve got no objections to any artistic endeavour picking up a percentage of the profit if their work really takes off”
This should be a matter of contract law, and not require some special Government Enforced Monopoly.
March 7th, 2008 on 14:53
So, I should demand that instead of just being paid when I repair a tooth, I shall have a fee everytime my patients chew … so I shall not need a pension … is “In perpetutiy” for ever or just until I die? .;.. perhaps the kids need never work again.
I’m already paying ever time I play a CD with my Performing Arts Licence … I demand a refund if I have a day off or don’t turn on the radio?