There has been much discussion over the past few weeks regarding the Government’s proposals to combat the challenge of copyright infringement through the suspension of the internet connections of individuals alleged to have illegally downloaded copyrighted material.

Statements made in opposition to this idea by members of the Featured Artists Coalition have been taken to imply that we condone illicit file-sharing. This is not the case and never has been.

We wish to make it clear to all parties that we believe the creative work of artists should be paid for by those who enjoy it and that whenever our music is used, royalties should be paid.

However, we seriously question the wisdom of seeking to deal with this problem by terminating the internet connections of individual music fans. We are not referring to websites that reap commercial benefit from file-sharing: seeking to make money from giving our songs away. We want the industry and Government to come down on those thieving rascals with all the weight of the law.

The focus of our objection is the proposed treatment of ordinary music fans who download a few tracks so as to check out our material before they buy. For those of us who don’t get played on the radio or mentioned in the music media – artists established and emerging – peer-to-peer recommendation is an important form of promotion.

The industry recognises the value of this unpaid-for-promotion and regularly uses free downloads as a marketing tool: for example, there are hundreds of free tracks available on the NME website, including music from Speech Debelle, White Lies, Little Boots and many others. By demanding blanket suspension powers from the Government, the industry is in danger of cutting-off a promotional tool that is of great use to fledgling artists who seek to create a buzz around themselves yet don’t have the financial support of a major label.

We believe there is a lack of accurate, independent research on file-sharing and we call upon the Government and Ofcom to commission some objective research into the subject, and investigate the real value and detriment of the varied effects of substitution and promotion arising from file-sharing.

The potential for self-promotion will be severely hampered if every packet of 1s and 0s sent across the internet has to be searched by the Government for “unauthorised” material. We also believe that such Government intervention, and a corresponding power to demand suspensions of accounts, is only achievable through a wide-scale invasion of personal privacy which we believe would result in a dangerous reduction in the rights to protection of the individual. Putting this power in place would reduce the civil liberties of every one of us in the country in order to afford a disincentive threat to a small minority of ‘egregious offenders.’ We believe this would be both disproportionate and unenforceable.

All this begs the question, ‘so if we don’t suspend those who download illicit material how are we going to make a living?’ This brings us to the crux of our argument. The FAC was formed earlier this year because we are concerned that decisions are being made within our industry without input from, or in consultation with, the artists who are on the front line of this debate - decisions that will seriously impact on the ability of all musicians to make a living in the years to come.

We have made a stand over suspension because we want to have this debate out in the open amongst the creative community and in consultation with the labels, publishers and the internet service providers who distribute our work. It is our belief that all of us need to work together in order to convince consumers that music makes a great contribution to quality of life and as such should be paid for. This cannot be achieved by a few retrograde slogans that recall the ‘home taping is killing music’ campaign of the eighties. If we hope to educate the public to pay the artists that make the music they love, then we, as an industry, will have to make some changes in the way that we remunerate artists.

We have negotiated in good faith with the labels all week, but they remain wedded to the idea of suspension of accounts. We remain steadfast in our belief that making threats against individual music fans is not an effective way to resolve any problems associated with file-sharing. So while we will willingly collaborate together on many levels of our business, in respect of this particular issue, we have agreed to disagree. We wish to continue to discuss the issues with the labels as matters unfold and we look forward to participating with them in negotiating the implementation of any eventual legislation regarding this matter or any other of similar importance to our industry.

Although we disagree with certain labels over the issue of suspension, we welcome the involvement of the UK Government in helping us to make the transition from an analogue to a digital music industry. We call upon Government agencies to support us in our battle to close down those sites which are giving away our music for their own financial gain.

Lastly, the FAC calls upon its fellow artists, irrespective of views or age, to join with us in discussions with labels, publishers and ISPs so as to ensure that the next generation of artists are able to exploit the technological potential of the internet to make a decent living doing the thing they love most – making music.