Bono has ruffled more than a few feathers with his New York Times opinion piece on illegal filesharing.
In it, he describes internet service providers as “reverse Robin Hoods” who are getting rich on the back of other people’s creativity.
“Caution!” he writes. “The only thing protecting the movie and TV industries from the fate that has befallen music and indeed the newspaper business is the size of the files. The immutable laws of bandwidth tell us we’re just a few years away from being able to download an entire season of 24 in 24 seconds. Many will expect to get it free.
“A decade’s worth of music file-sharing and swiping has made clear that the people it hurts are the creators — in this case, the young, fledgling songwriters who can’t live off ticket and t-shirt sales like the least sympathetic among us — and the people this reverse Robin Hooding benefits are rich service providers, whose swollen profits perfectly mirror the lost receipts of the music business.
“We’re the post office, they tell us; who knows what’s in the brown-paper packages? But we know from America’s noble effort to stop child pornography, not to mention China’s ignoble effort to suppress online dissent, that it’s perfectly possible to track content. Perhaps movie moguls will succeed where musicians and their moguls have failed so far, and rally America to defend the most creative economy in the world, where music, film, TV and video games help to account for nearly 4% of gross domestic product. Note to self: Don’t get over-rewarded rock stars on this bully pulpit, or famous actors; find the next Cole Porter, if he/she hasn’t already left to write jingles.”
Meanwhile, further to The Edge’s interview in the Hot Press 2010 Annual, Bono has told Q that, “We’ve been listening to material for (possible next album) Songs Of Ascent. We haven’t fully decided to press ‘go’ on that. But we’re touring at the end of May and it’d be nice to have some new songs. Even if it’s an EP or a single song.”