Note: This is a rant and is meant in no way, shape or form to end any discussions about anything. These rants are meant to start discussion and (hopefully) open some minds to new ideas. Also, these rants are written by fairly seasoned pompous asshole who will not respond to comments or questions. Now here’s Tom with the weather.

You know what is really refreshing? When the manager of one of the world’s biggest rock bands makes a speech about how internet service providers (ISP’s) should cut off service to customers that get caught sharing music. This is so very refreshing for a few reasons.

First, its nice to see that U2 doesn’t try to disguise the fact that they are clearly in it for the money now. Their manager makes a speech about how consumers should get screwed over and they post it on their site. I guess it all makes sense when examining U2 in their current state. While U2 did make music with a message in the 80’s, that time has long past and now it is easy to see how they are completely wrapped up in their own greatness. That last comment applies ten fold to Bono. Bono’s ‘commitment’ to poverty in Africa is laughable. Bono’s approach of using huge corporations that profit from the current state of the third world to solve third world poverty is nothing short of idiotic. The perfect example of this is when Bono combined with the Gap to fight African poverty. The Gap has used slave labour for years and to try to use this business to fight poverty is ridiculous.

Another reason this is revolting (lets drop the sarcasm) is how this practice infringes on our right to privacy. Just because big rock bands are suffering in today’s music business doesn’t mean that governments should put through legislation that would force ISP’s to monitor someone’s internet activity. While ISP’s currently monitor customer’s activity because of memory limits they enforce per month, they don’t monitor whether that is from p2p programs or from downloading movies legally. So now because U2 is losing money, we lose our rights? Go fuck yourself.

The last part of this speech that angers me is the shot he takes at Radiohead and their innovative approach of promoting In Rainbows. He criticizes Radiohead’s approach because it led to more downloading of the album then of actual sales. What he obviously doesn’t understand is that Radiohead is clearly in the music business for more then the money. Obviously, Radiohead wants to be able to live off being musicians and they can easily do that but they also want to make great music and want people to hear it, not just buy it. While Radiohead did this experiment to promote their album, not to change the music business, they were well aware of what they would lose from trying this but they did it anyway. This experiment shows that Radiohead strives to try something new and their departure from the world of major labels also shows that they are tired of the music businesses of old and that they want something new. So if U2 and their manager want to stay in the past, let them and if they want to take away our privacy so they can make money, fuck them. Better bands like Radiohead will be in the new music business so we really don’t need tired old rock bands like U2.