Skei Grande's generosity

To appear contemporary and cool, the Liberal Party and parts of the press brag about their file-sharing-friendly attitudes and pat the young, striped pirates on the head, so that they will momentarily give them back some of their youthful luster and secure them young voters, and for the journalists, readers. Their statements are neither cool nor future-friendly, just devoid of perspective and thoroughness, in the desire to win a "second of freshness."

To dress up with big words like freedom and faith in the future requires clean hair. In my world, generosity at the expense of other people's creations is called theft and irresponsibility. Trine Skei Grande claims in her article in Dagbladet on April 20 that the anti-piracy campaign has failed to present documentation that illegal downloading has consequences for record sales. Record sales are at 1993 levels, and the music that young people in the 15-25 age group use is almost not bought! Surveys (IUM AS, Dec. 2006) show that approximately 80 percent of internet users in this age group only download illegally. To speculate on anything other than that this is the reason for the formidable reduction in record sales is manipulation of the facts.

The Liberal Party's Trine Skei Grande consistently adopts a slightly arrogant style, in which she tries to convince people that the music industry is old-fashioned and has fears for the future, based on a number of factual errors and claims. She herself basks in an assumed modernity and presents technological obviousness: Clicks on the Internet can be counted and used as a basis for compensation (Aftenposten, April 28), and that "now they will introduce DRM" (April 20), a technology that was introduced many years ago and has just been decidedly removed by record company EMI, among others.

The music industry wants to be at the forefront of the development of the Internet market and of course not hold back on the CD market. We want the Internet to be a channel where artists, creators and users can meet, with the simple premise that the user must pay for the experience. We also believe that consumers – when they think about it – want and understand that they have to pay for music. We believe in a change in behavior through information about the consequences of illegal use and through an improvement in the music offering on the Internet, both in terms of repertoire and payment solutions. Development is also accelerating. Today, there are at least 20 online stores that offer music online.

We need wise minds as advisors in these elections, not those who have no longer-term perspectives than until the next election.