ISP music industry deal a suicide attempt

Cory Doctorow thinks the deal between the music industry and big UK ISPs is "just the latest paragraph in the record industry's long, self-pitying suicide note, and it's left me wishing they'd just pull the trigger already and stop beating their chests and telling us all how unfair it all is."

"Ten years ago, the record industry had a simple little problem they could have solved by showing a tiny amount of future-looking flexibility. A decade of intransigence and stubborness has bred a killer strain of antibiotic-resistant filesharing technology that grows more and more difficult to police by the year. The sheet music publishers didn't get to control the destiny of the record companies, who couldn't control the broadcasters, who couldn't control the cable operators, who couldn't control the VCR makers.

The record industry will not be in charge of the characteristics of filesharing systems. They may get remunerated for their use, but they won't be able to dictate their functionality, no matter how many children they criminalise. If they want to cash in on filesharing, they'd better do it soon, before every potential licence fee payer decides to opt out of the system forever."