While the emergence of the internet has been positive for many people, there is no getting away from the fact that many people have lost out or feel as though downloading capabilities have removed a lot of the fun in life. There will definitely be a lot of people in the music industry who will have problems with downloading and the impact that it has had on the industry. While you may think that having the chance to provide music to fans and listeners in more avenues is of benefit, the fact that people can access these songs without having to pay for them is a big blow to many people.
This is why many people in the music industry are calling for serious punishments against people who illegal distribute music. There has been a story recently where a man from Liverpool has been arrested under suspicion of distributing the Top 40 music chart in a legal manner. Of course, if everyone downloads their music for free, there won’t really be a download chart, even if the chart now includes streaming. The 38 year old man, who hasn’t been named, hails from the Everton part of Liverpool and he has been arrested under a joint investigation by the city of London police and the Merseyside Police.
People Love to get Music for Free
It is believed that once the charts have been announced for the week, the man would upload singles onto a range of sites with the police saying that these actions could have caused the music industry to lose out on millions of pounds. This sounds like a very high figure, and you would think that this has been exaggerated, but no doubt the music industry and the police will be stating that the sums involved are as high as possible. The man was being questioned in custody over fraud offences and on the suspicion of copyright infringement.
The man’s home was searched by detectives hailing from the Intellectual Property Crime Unit, or the IPCU, from the City of London Police team, and they seized a number of mobile devices and computers. While the Top 40 chart was the main focus of the man’s alleged activities, he is also suspected of having uploaded acapella music, which has helped him to generate income.
There is a UK Wide Approach to this Sort of Crime
A spokesperson for the City of London Police spoke about how the organisation is working hard across the country to pursue the people who are making money from distributing music in a legal manner. There is no doubt that creative people deserve to have their hard work and effort respected and protected in the same manner that any other professional would. This was something that was also stated by PRS For Music, an organisation that undertakes performance rights for musicians and they spoke about the problems of music piracy.
One of the issues about music piracy is that many people don’t believe that it is a serious crime. These people would never think of heading into HMV or Asda and shoplifting a CD but when it comes to downloading a song in an illegal manner on the internet, they wouldn’t think twice about it. This is why it is important to work on changing the mind-set of people when it comes to illegal downloads.
There will no doubt the some people arguing that downloading is a great way to listen to a song and then determining if you like it. There will be some people who act in this manner and then go off and buy a song and support an artist but it will be a minimal amount of the total number of people that carry out this form of downloading activity.
There definitely needs to be a change in the way that music is downloaded by people and these actions by different police departments indicates that this form of crime is being taken seriously. You can expect plenty of people to clamour for a serious level of punishment to be imposed on the man to send out a signal to people who may undertake this form of crime.
With this sort of pressure being imposed, it is important that the man, and anyone else facing this sort of charge, should call on the services of an experienced and professional defence solicitor. Even in cases that look to be clear cut, the work and actions of a proper defence solicitor can make a massive difference to the final outcome of a case.
Andrew Reilly is a freelance writer with a focus on news stories and consumer interest articles. He has been writing professionally for 9 years but has been writing for as long as he can care to remember. When Andrew isn’t sat behind a laptop or researching a story, he will be found watching a gig or a game of football.