Europas kompositörers lobbyorganisation ECSA stöder i ett pressmeddelande den svenska domen mot de fyra huvudpersonerna bakom Pirate Bay. 

Brussels, 20 April 2009

PRESS RELEASE

for immediate release

The European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA) welcomes the decision of the Swedish Court in the trial of the founders of Pirate Bay.  ECSA believes that the verdict sends out a strong message the facilitation of file sharing on such a scale is a criminal act that threatens the livelihoods of the music writers that ECSA represents.  Whilst ECSA accepts that suing individual consumers is not a desirable or viable solution to the problem of illegal file sharing any solution must be based upon a firm foundation of rights that can be enforced against such industrial infringers.

 ECSA further believes that the decision opens the way for the myriad of legal online music offerings as it reduces the level to which they have to attempt to compete with that which is illegal.  In order to facilitate this ECSA trusts that the EU Commission will listen to the European Collecting Societies and will do all it can to help to create a system of licensing in Europe that will benefit both users and rights owners.  Without such a system it is hard to see how legal offerings will be able to establish themselves.

 ECSA looks to other European states to maintain the integrity of the copyright system which underlies the creativity of music writers and awaits with interest the outcome of further debate in France on the proposed Creation and Internet law.

European Composer & Songwriter Alliance (ECSA)

c/o European House for Culture

Place Flagey 18

B-1050 Brussels

Belgium

Email: info [at] composeralliance [dot] org

Phone, Patrick Rackow, ECSA spokesperson: +44 20 7636 2929

ECSA – the European Composer & Songwriter Alliance –  represents 12 000 members in 36 organisations of Composers and Songwriters in 24 European countries.

ECSA is the lobbyist organisation speaking with one voice in the name of all European composers and songwriters and is formed by the three main genre specific networks of the composers in Europe:

APCOE – Alliance of Popular Music Composer Organisations in Europe

ECF – European Composers Forum

FFACE – Federation of Film and Audio-visual Composers of Europe