John Walker's Electronic House

“I can’t have your what music? Oh! Sheet music.” John Walker didn’t want it anyway.

Something of a competition is developing amongst those in the music industry. No, silly, it’s not a, “Who can find the best and most talented artists” competition. It’s the, “Who can be the most repulsively greedy and hateful moron” Challenge!

You’ve still not done anything to raise your disgust at the suing of children that is currently going on in this country (well, not quite suing, as none of the cases ever reach court, what with all the lies told to the families being threatened, about how if they pay a few thousand now, they’ll not have to pay fictional vast amounts more that their imaginary judges would require). Meh, whatever, it hasn’t happened to you yet, so why say anything, eh?

Now you won’t do anything about the statements of Music Publishers’ Association president Lauren Keiser, who has clearly recently discovered this new-fangled invention the children are calling ‘The Internet’.

Launching a campaign against websites that contain song scores, Keiser is not interested in the petty thousands of dollars and pounds of fines the RIAA, BPI, et al have been kicking out of the poor and vulnerable. He wants jail time!

Promising to target (at first) “very big sites that people would think are legitimate and very, very popular,” Keiser doesn’t think money will do the trick. If those handing out the punishments would only “throw in some jail time I think we’ll be a little more effective.”

David Israelite, president of the National Music Publishers’ Association, managed to wade in with the most idiotic comment of all, however. Apparently not having noticed that the debate matured beyond such ignorant and hyperbolic bollocks about fifteen years ago, the johnny-come-lately pronounced, “Unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing.” Yes, no different. Apart from nothing having been stolen, of course. But otherwise, no different. Copyright Watch would like to condemn writing stories about people dying. After all, it’s no different than murder.