After a series of successes of the German pirate party in elections there came up a big discussion on the German web about copyright in the publishing industry. see for example:

• we are the creators
• we are the citizens
• and I am the bad girl
• even new collecting companies (as competitor to GEMA) are about to be established

Being myself a member of the pirate party people often assume that I want to legalize file sharing and make music free of charge for anybody. Even though I think this can be a smart move in online music marketing I don’t follow these goals. After a huge discussion with two musicians I am befriend with I have the feeling that I should make this public clear statement once and for all:
I don’t support people steeling music in p2p file sharing services. This does harm the musician!
What I support is the idea of a modern copyright law that respects modern technology and also the behavior of the market and our society. This means in particular the establishment of modern business models for musicians.
I encourage any German person reading this blog to participate in the Working group copyright of the pirate party. You can participate and follow the mailinglist and join the discussion without being a member of the party. Most pirates don’t want to get rid of the copyright (as stated in media) but they want to modernize it and they enjoy music and are on the side of the musicians. Especially musicians should join the discussion since it is a topic that is of their concern!