Lily Allen Walks Away From Filesharing Debate – And Music

Just a couple of days after it was claimed Lily Allen had announced her decision to quit music, she has also walked away from the debate over illegal filesharing and copyright infringement. Lily started a blog called It’s Not Alright to share her views on the filesharing debate in light of the British government’s attempts to bring in tough new laws to cut off persistent offenders.

The debate surrounding illegal filesharing – not just of music but also movies, TV shows, software, etc. – is a very complicated one with strong opinions on both sides of the divide. So I guess it was never the most sensible idea for Lily Allen to blindly rush in and spout her controversial opinions on the issue.

Allen is a firm believer that illegal filesharing is bad in all its forms and wants to see severe punishments meted out to offenders. She gained a lot of support from fellow musicians but most commenters on the blog were critical of her position.

Her role as a spokesperson for the music industry on this issue crumbled when she was caught scanning newspaper articles on to the site (copyright infringement), stealing an article from Techdirt without attribution (copyright infringement) and offering unauthorized mixtapes from before her career took off (copyright infringement of the highest order).

So she has now deleted her blog after claiming on Twitter that “the abuse was getting too much.” Having read the blog daily since its creation, I must say I didn’t see much abuse, merely people vociferously disagreeing with Allen’s point of view. And there is a big difference.

It’s a shame Lily Allen threw her toys out of her pram over this issue, and a shame too that it looks as though she could have quit music for good. For all her faults, Allen invokes debate and controversy, and that is something the music industry needs at this point in time.

[Photo Source: Newscom]