Oh well, I’m quite happy about the decision the European Union made today… at least they’re pretending they’re looking after our rights. Can’t find a link at the moment, will update later.

The Demos survey was so overdue that one cannot even stress its importance and implications enough. Sadly, the policy-makers and politicians won’t let reality bother them. I can only agree with the results of the survey when I look at my friends and me. There has always been a fair amount of sharing and it was especially those times when most of them (and me) bought a considerable amount of CDs. Some in order to build a collection, have something to grab or for the car radio and mostly to support the artist(s) to continue making good music. Sharing is used to “taste” if the music is fine or not. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest way that as soon as eMule and common sharing platforms where attacked by law firms, interest and sales went down. In that context (checking before buying & legality), I favor the culture flatrate proposed by activists like the Pirate Party. I am in loose contact though with a manager of a major label and his rants and plans signal only the opposite, as he is in favor of 3S, the prosecution industry and internet surveillance. I have come to the conviction that there are almost no open minds in that business and that it will take some years of possible pressure and hardship, but in the end they will go down the river. You cannot eternally bite the hand that feeds you.

Yet I have not heard that the Three-Strikes-Rule will be implemented in Germany. Where did you get that from?

And three strikes is ridiculous. Imagine all the parents without internet because their 12-year olds downloaded some short-lived song from the web. I really don’t understand how a common “cut out the middle man” business problem could ever develop into an issue that makes constitutional courts busy.