Blur star accuses music industry of techno fear

BLUR drummer DAVE ROWNTREE has joined the battle over MP3 and the rising row over NAPSTER, saying that the music industry must change copyright laws or face defeat in the face of new technology.

Dave, the most teched-up member of the band, believes that MP3 downloading itself is not the problem. "The MP3 scare is just a smokescreen really. Anyone who thinks that MP3 files are the issue hasn't thought it through properly," he told nme.com.

He added that copyright laws would have to change, but that heavy-handed tactics were the wrong way to go about it.

He added: "The copyright laws were never designed to cover technology like the Internet, so it's not surprising that they are falling to pieces.

"The kind of music they were designed to deal with was made by two people standing next to a piano, one writing the tune, and the other writing the words. The most complex machine that was even thought about was a player piano. Even the rules governing artists royalties are based around the concept of selling sheet music and piano rolls."

He continued: "The idea of copyright and what it means for a writer to own a song or a recording are going to have to change. I do think that artists, writers and musicians should earn money from what they create, but it is pointless trying blindly to apply the old rules when the world has changed so much."

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