Bono showing his incompetence and age — cries out for stricter copyright/web policing, reduction in consumer rights.
Joining the likes of Metalica’s Lars Ulrich and U2 manager Patrick McGuinness, U2 frontman Bono is starting off 2010 showing his incompetence and complete lack of understanding of the music marketplace in the digital age. In an article in the NYT, Bono claims the entire world needs stricter web copyright policies and more policing. This is the exact opposite of what really needs to happen. The real solution is simple — change your decades old business model (which does not work in a digital world/market) and reinvent your sphere of the commercial market.
Sadly, while I did enjoy U2′s music, it just won’t be the same for me anymore. How can I continue to support someone who automatically thinks I’m a criminal, not to mention wants to make my experience with music harder and full of countless more roadblocks, rules, and stipulations?
It could be worse however. I could live in Britain. Over yonder, rules have been set in motion to attach a £25 fee to every broadband bill in the country to help fund a universal web monitoring program that will set out to weed the internet of illegal files. The only hiccup is that a wide range of groups oppose the measure. Groups such as ISP’s, MI5, and intelligent musicians have all spoken out against the monitoring program as a bad idea. So why press on?
The world is run by lobbyists, not the very people who vote to put those in power in their positions. It’s a cold hard truth. They can push stronger policing efforts all they want. At the end of the day, the pirates and those they’re trying to catch will always get away while the rest of the general public suffers.
Stop on by TechDirt at any point and you can find countless articles showing how countries around the world with less emphasis on copyrights and IP law have more innovation. There’s some false belief in the States that more copyrights and copyright laws will somehow make more inventions. Case in point: Google won’t put multi-touch apps on the Android platform themselves for fear of legal attack by Apple’s lawyers. (Why HTC, Palm, and several others do and get away with it remains a mystery). If it is in fact Apple’s lawyers keeping Google from using the feature, their copyright is preventing innovation. Google could come out with a revamped multi-touch experience or use it in a way we’ve never thought of. Unfortunately we’ll have to forever wonder what it would be like.
The most telling example of Bono’s utter lack of intelligence when all things digital are concerned, he cites the movie industry as succeeding in quelling piracy and online file sharing problems. First of all, I can find any movie I want online just as easily as I can music. They (the movie industry) has not solved anything. Second, the movie industry is even more removed from the equation. With even stricter web/digital policies on movies, they are even worse off. Why someone would want to replicate such a poor example of how to run a business and distribute content is beyond me.
It’s quite sad really. The movie industry has gotten to a point where they’re lobbying congress to pass rules to let them disable analog outputs on TV’s for select movies/TV shows under the guise of “reducing piracy” and help them more easily release movies on TV before being made available via normal retail channels. It’s complete BS. It’s an easy way for them to milk our wallets even more. Just imaging if some music labels banned together and tried to disable outputs and other pieces of our audio gear to prevent file sharing/end of the world? It would be a legal shit storm to put it mildly.
It is people like Lars, Bono, and McGuinness who are destroying the music industry and any chance they have to actually making a good impression/fully maximizing potential in the digital age. With every rule, every DRM scheme, every web monitoring plan, they are pushing themselves further and further into irrelevance. These people completely miss the point of the digital age — it is not to steal, but to share and share openly. That is why the internet was invented for. Intelligent music artists whom are breaking away from the traditional music label structure and instead going it alone or at least commanding more control over their works are finding fans and income greatly benefit.
It is the year 2010. You cannot charge $10-$15 for 8-15 digital files that cost absolutely nothing to reproduce, distribute, or “package”. Plain and simple.
Apparently things went well with the last co-op between U2 and RIM because as they did this past year, RIM will again be the title sponsor for U2′s 2010 North American tour. Taking on such a challenge is not for the faint of heart or light of wallet. Copious amounts of time, energy, and money are needed to put on such shows and tours. I applaud RIM for reaching out into the consumer space and trying to be “consumer cool”. Now, let’s just hope 
