The New York Times-20080129-France- U2-s Manager Assails Piracy- -Brief-

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France: U2's Manager Assails Piracy; [Brief]

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Saying that Internet and technology companies have for too long had a free ride on music, the veteran manager of the band U2 urged them to start sharing their enormous revenue with singers and songwriters. At the annual music industry trade show in the south of France, the manager, Paul McGuinness, blamed broadband Internet service providers in particular for allowing mass piracy of digital music over their networks while sales of recorded music and royalty payments to musicians have plunged. Global music sales have fallen to $17.6 billion last year from $38 billion in 1998, according to industry estimates. Mr. McGuinness endorsed a proposal first raised in France late last year for Internet service providers to voluntarily band together and crack down on subscribers who dominate illegal file-sharing networks.