The debate at the British Music Experience did not bode well – eleven speakers on a panel – more of a soccer team than a debate. But the presence of a member of the Pirate Bay team added an interesting dimension. Inevitably the debate itself was rather superficial. The moderator struggled manfully to keep the discussion on-theme and tried rather unsuccessfully to avoid the whole thing circling round the Pirate.

I didn’t manage to say it very well last night, but while we all lined up to land a rhetorical punch on the visiting Pirate, the ongoing phenomenon of piracy as a globally, technologically enabled catalyst for change is really the key thing to remember.

Considering that he has a criminal conviction hanging over his head, he didn’t seem so bad, the Pirate, even though we all condemn what he was part of. He didn’t seem like a malicious human being out to subvert the very moral framework of our lives. He seems like a nice, well-educated middle class tecchy, with some impish delight and without much sympathy for an industry so fragile that he could deflate its balloon with his tiny needle.

The anarchic tendency of file-sharers is a social phenomenon empowered by the technology. It is derived from both great technological facility and basic human greed. From a successful artist’s perspective, file-sharing fans may look like ”greedy thieves” but then from the perspective of the developing world that may also be how European and North American consumers appear. A developing artist may see it that way too. More here

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