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CONDEMNATION
Apparently, things are so quiet in Poland at the moment police there have nothing better to do than try to ensure the purity and integrity of Depeche Mode's new single. They pulled on their raiding trousers in order to arrest a bloke from Kielce who, they claim, had made the Mode's new single Precious (and the video for the track) available online.
Jeremy Banks, head of IFPI's Internet Anti-Piracy Unit said: "This action shows just how seriously the record companies view pre-release piracy.
"Pre-releases can be illegally posted, downloaded and distributed worldwide within hours. So it is crucial for the recording industry's cycle of reinvestment to prevent initial sales being lost to internet piracy."
We're not sure that anyone who is actually still so keen on Depeche Mode would be put off buying the single just because they'd downloaded a version of it - wouldn't that be like a drug addict saying "No thanks, had some yesterday"? But we're not entirely sure why Polish police are quite so concerned about ensuring Dave Gahan can buy a new hat - according to The 2005 Crime and Safety Report they're quite busy enough:
Crime has remained a problem in recent years with understaffed, under-funded police departments and slow, inefficient legal systems that are not effective at attacking criminal incidents.
We're sure the residents of Kielce will be delighted to hear that their overstretched force is putting the issues of international record labels first.
2 comments:
They're apparently also really into black metal and industrial/goth/darkwave in Poland. Perhaps there's no Polish equivalent of "oh, come off it!"?
Much as I don't wish any poor soul to end up in court over something so risible as a Depeche Mode single, there's a part of me that would like to see one of these cases blow up in the IFPI's face. The fact is pre-release piracy is an invention of the body who invented the pre-release – the record companies. They don't need to circulate these things months before they come out: they only do it so that they can line up their long range marketing plans and flatter the artist's ego. Not so long ago record companies used to release records to radio a few days before they were on the streets. In fact the radio stations wouldn't even play them if they couldn't be bought. Now the radio and the record industry between them have contrived to bring about a situation that suits their internal processes and acts against the public interest. A plague on both their houses. I'm feeling particularly sore today because some PR called up and wanted me to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement before I could see the DVD of the George Harrison Concert For Bangla Desh, a show which took place in 1971 and has no secrets left to betray. The day the record industry does finally go to hell in a handcart the only chaps who will be whistling will be the lawyers. They wont' have made anybody richer except themselves.
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