No need to say anything more, just listen.

Yet again, Fry seems to be one of the few in the industry who actually “gets” it when it comes to these things.

Since launching this site, the aim has been to campaign for a fairer shake for the consumer. Of course those that make the music deserve to get paid a bigger chunk of the profits. But those that consume the music deserve to be offered a fair retail price. The industry made its usual claims to a judge in Ireland earlier this week who said he accepted that piracy was “devastating” the music industry[*]. Absurd hyperbole and even more absurd a claim as we remind you once again that the music industry recently announced record profits despite a recession affecting most retail sectors. But it is this kind of one-sided propaganda carpet-bombing that is being used to keep prices artificially high.

The question that has always bothered my mind is why is music anywhere from 5 to 15 to 50 years old being sold at the same retail value as music released only last week? We need a fairer pricing structure that encourages creativity, encourages sales across the sector and discourages aging rockers from keeping their mansions carpeted by expecting to receive the same royalty levels coming in for work they did 30 years ago as they would for a brand new album. This is where I feel our opinion and Dickens comments come together. We have been campaigning for, at the minimum, single prices to be cut to 29p a track maximum for download. This would equate to roughly £4 per album. Hardly a massive drop from the £7 – £9 currently offered but still more reasonable. But that move isn’t enough. Why should I have to pay the same for a track recorded and released this year as one recorded and release in 1982? Music goes out of fashion and demand and there can’t be a justification for perpetuity of value. Downloads of old material need to be slashed further and this is where Dickens’ bargain basement albums model comes in. Don’t expect a consumer to pay 2010 prices for the Feargal Sharkey 1980s back-catalogue. If it’s an old album, the £3, £2, £1 album bundles rather than individual downloads make more economical sense. Would you begrudge paying a pound for an old album you want? When today’s option is Torrent it or face paying £8 for it, no wonder sales are haemorrhaging and downloads exploding. If you want to release a special edition CD with lots of bonus extras and goodies and charge £40 for it go ahead, but standard prices must change.

But the industry is having none of it. Jonathan Shalit, the man behind such high brow acts as N’Dubz (arguably more famous for court appearances and intimidating teenage girls than their musical output) and Charlotte Church (who seems to spend more time on the cover of Heat than in the recording studio these days), has said that

“Right now if you buy a bottle of water it’s £1. A piece of music is a valuable form of art. If you want the person to respect it and value it, it’s got to cost them not a huge sum of money but a significant sum of money.”

In one statement, Shalit has successfully summed up the short-sighted arrogance and self-motivated greed of those in industry claiming to represent artists. So, is Mr Shalit trying to absurdly infer that music is more valuable than the liquid needed to live? It’s a bizarre and flawed comparison to draw which has already resulted in plenty of deserved derision on Twitter, so no need to dwell here. As BBC blogger James McLaren further points out[*], music can be considered a form of art (and like all “art” is subject to debate of quality and merit) and perhaps original recording tapes of classic albums can be then considered high value art, but conversely anyone can go pick up a print card of the a Van Gogh in their local craft shop for less than a bottle Coke. You, when you buy music are receiving the musical equivalent of that print card. It’s not even as if you’re downloading (or being offered) higher sound quality FLAC files. Lets not even get started on DRM.
Also carefully omitted in statements from the likes of Shalit is that of that “significant sum”, only a tiny fraction of a percent actually makes it in to the pocket of those responsible for creating said art while a lot goes to the multitude of middle-men like Shalit who I suspect need sustain the notion of a bloated, overcomplicated, unreformed industry to justify their own jobs.

The music industry needs to reform and it needs to reform now. Fans are growing increasingly tired of the likes of Feargal Sharkey talking the talk about reform but then running for the hills the minute anything remotely worth debating is put on the table[*], mainly because most reforms threaten the pay packets of the middle-men. Just because prices are lower than they were 10 years ago doesn’t mean they aren’t still unjustifiably high. Just because piracy is a danger to your industry doesn’t mean that the blame lays solely with those downloading. If the industry really does want to avoid being “devastated” by falling sales it needs to grow a pair and make some tough decisions about the way it runs it affairs. Lobbying government for legislation which really just boils down to putting a legally acceptable front on the activities of ACS:Law is not the way to achieve anything other than contempt from the very people you want to buy your product. Legal firm Cramer Pelmont recently decided against participating in the Digital Economy Act, citing that punishing your potential client base as a way to try and increase sales is what amounts to a fools errand[*]. If the lawyers are starting to see that, why aren’t the music bosses?

Despite a general mood in the media that seems to suggest an obsession over “porn” and “hackers” (or “Anonymous” if they’re feeling particularly down-with-the-kids) rather than “privacy” and “security”, the week isn’t getting any better for one Mr Crossley and those working with him.

Many more qualified than me have done a great job already of dissecting the facts of the case and their potential legal ramifications. If you want a longer, more in-depth recounting of the story try here, here and here.

What is bothering me is the many questions that are coming out of this and the possible negative ramifications of the actions of Anon in posting the ACS:Law archive to BitTorrent in the way they have. Excuse me if I ramble a bit…

Firstly we have the issue of the ISPs. It has long been the clarion-call of the providers that they are legally obligated to comply with demands for personal details if compelled to do so by the courts. The problem is it’s now emerging that certain ISPs seem more compelled to do so than others. While Be Unlimited, BSkyB, BT, PlusNet, O2, and Zen have all quite happily handed over details of their customers to ACS:Law without question (and in some cases without encryption), Virgin Media and Talk Talk have resisted to the point emails suggest ACS:Law simply bypasses them. In responding to the data leak Sky and PlusNet have both trotted out the same “we are compelled legally” argument floating around before. Well, sorry, but when Talk Talk can issue statements saying they never did and never would hand over details to third parties[*], you have to wonder just how genuine the other ISPs are being. Also not helping is evidence of emails from ISPs to Crossley demanding payments for providing data[*]. Were the participating ISPs ever threatened with serious court action to begin with? And why were they happy to take a cut of cash from the firm in exchange for sensitive customer data? These ISPs need to be asked hard questions about their participation in this scheme and not be allowed to give out spurious press releases with excuses which don’t wash next to the behaviour of their rivals. If these companies can’t answer these questions openly and honestly they deserve to haemmorage clients left right and centre. In fact, we urge you to boycott any ISP that would hand over sensitive data to third parties so freely and carelessly¹.

Another issue that is bothering me, which the media reporting of this story plays in to, is the manner in which the internal data of ACS:Law has been made public. The DDoS may in itself be defined as a criminal act, however it is a seperate issue from the data leak, no matter how much the media wish it so. The DDoS was not responsible for giving public access to the web server root files. The DDos was not responsible for keeping sensitive, unencrypted data on a public access web server. The poor handling of restoring the site by those in charge of ACS:Law’s website were responsible for making the files accessable by the public. Those in charge of ACS:Law were responsible for keeping sensitive data on that public server. The blame rests with the firm and the firm alone.

However, this is where the real problems start. While ACS: Law may be responsible for giving access to the files and however noble the intent of the smash-and-grab on the company’s details, who is responsible for the potential negative fallout? This was not a calculated move by the likes of Wikileaks with the information dissected and sensitive irrelevant material redacted. This data was posted to BitTorrent raw. This means those responsible for posting the data have put those potentially innocents already suffering the humiliation of dealing with ACS:Law in further danger of having personal information including credit card details exploited and misused from the most (relatively) harmless spammer, to the more organised cyber-criminal. This is sheer recklessness. In their haste to be the smart-arse who took down Crossley they have put thousands of people’s lives under potential new strains.

We cannot ignore that and we can’t just wash it off as being collateral damage in the quest to take down one man, no matter how hateful. These things must be acknowledged and discussed and debated, otherwise the story in the media risks being turned from how internet activists took down a shady lawyer with a laissez faire attitude to data security was using a legal loophole for financial gain by exploiting people in to how internet hackers gave criminals easy access to several hundred people’s credit card details. Again the ISPs have a responsibility in all of this rather than hiding behind their press releases. They have to ensure damage control immediately by informing ALL customers of whom they have passed data to ACS:Law that they might take action to protect themselves; otherwise they are no better than ACS:Law themselves, hiding under the cover of dubious legal arguments while others suffer the consequences. If they haven’t starting doing so already, then shame on them.

A lot of good has come out of ACS:Law’s carelessness. Finally the snakes have been beaten out the grass and will hopefully receive their comeuppance. The ICO has (hopefully genuinely) made plain that he is not treating this matter lightly and will not be fobbed off with half-baked finger-pointing. However, we can’t simply ignore the negative cause and effect of what has happened too and we have to consider how those in the industry and government (which we know are good bedfellows) can and probably will turn it into another tool for exerting more and more control over, not just copyright, but the internet as a whole.

—————————-

1 – It is worth noting that despite Virgin Media and Talk Talk’s bold refusal to cooperate with ACS:Law these are both firms with questions above their heads over their own internal tracking of customer’s personal web data.

Way back in March, while Parliament was busy rushing through the Digital Economy Act despite the massive public campaign against it, the BBC slipped in an episode of Panorama purporting to be about the bill. Given that the BBC at the time had a vested interest in seeing the bill passed it was hard to swallow claims of impartiality. The claim was made harder to bear given the program essentially gave the Industry a strong well presented formal platform, while ushering in raggedy hippy looking Doc Brown look-a-likes to champion the fight against the Bill. All the while underpinned with a “downloading isn’t trendy” schtick trilled from (formerly respected) Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley.

For the first time I was moved to write and complain to the BBC about their questionable weighting of the argument and the tone of the program.

Now, almost 6 months later, the BBC has finally responded. Here is their statement to me in full;

Dear [Name removed]

Thanks for your e-mail regarding ‘Panorama – Are the Net Police Coming for You?’ broadcast on 15 March.

We apologise for the very severe delay in replying. It was due to a major fault in our systems which meant that our reply was not sent when you first contacted us.

I understand you felt the programme presented a biased account of the Digital Economy Bill, focusing the majority of it’s time on those in favour of the Bill, specifically the BPI stance and attempted to scaremonger the audience. I also note you felt the standard of contributors who were opposed to the Bill were of a poor standard.

Impartiality is the cornerstone of all our current affairs output and we strive to ensure that all our programme makers are aware of this commitment to fair and balanced programming. We seek neither to promote nor denigrate any opinion; rather we seek to present the facts in a clear and clearly understandable way so as to allow our audience to make up their own minds.

We know our audience hold a wide and varied range of opinions, and as such we’d never expect everyone to agree with the content of every programme. All of the contributors featured in the programme were chosen to do so based on their knowledge and experience and we firmly believe that this was a balanced and fair film that considered a range of arguments on both sides of the debate, making it clear that the relevant laws were civil and not criminal. The penalties for an infringer were described as including the possibility of being sued by the rights holders, and not an arrest or fine/prison sentence.

Nevertheless, I recognise your strong views on this matter and we can reassure you that at the time, the points in your contact, including those about legitimate and free downloading alternatives, were included on the BBC’s audience log. This is the internal report of audience reaction which we compile daily and which is circulated to all programme makers, commissioning executives and senior management. Your points, with other comments we received, were therefore circulated and considered across the BBC at the time.

Once again please accept our apologies for the delay and thanks for taking the time to contact us.

Regards

Ciaran McConnell

While it’s encouraging to hear that at least a few of my concerns (ie the complete omission of challenging Industry with working download alternatives/CC) being addressed in some way the main body of the response is a fairly typical “you’re entitled to you’re view, but we think you’re wrong” response given to most BBC complaints.

As Ofcom continues to struggle to make a dodgy knock off market stall wallet out of a pig’s ear and the deadlines for the Act going live draw closer and MEPs annouce concerns over the similarly themed ACTA, the alternate viewpoint is still being woefully under-represented or completely and deliberately misconstrued out there in the media and that is dangerous for everyone.

Remember back during the painfully brief debate period of second reading when Stephen Timms continuously trotted out the line “it’s only a letter” in defence of the proportionality of action against downloaders? Remember when he said he thought that should be enough? Remember when he said “technical measures” would only be a last resort?

Well it would seem that harassing letters and trashing your internet connection isn’t enough for the buzzards over at the BPI. In a recent interview, BPI head Geoff Taylor told Billboard that because of Government delaying the deployment of technical measures (to allow Ofcom to assess the ability, validity and method of said measures) they may be “reluctantly” (ha!) forced to resume suing people. That’s right. Now alongside the letters, the throttling and the disconnection, the recession-proof BPI now wants to bankrupt recession-laden people to teach them the ultimate lesson in why the little man will not be allowed to screw with big business status quo.

First off, where does Mr Taylor get off on criticising Government for the one lone sole instance of scrutiny they managed to bother to put in the bill? According to the BPI’s logic, there should be no oversight or investigation at all, just get ISP’s to start pulling the plugs and get them doing it yesterday, to hell with the real world logistics or the few scraps of common sense left in the Bill.

Secondly, doesn’t this smack a little of hypocrisy? Throughout the entire Digital Economy Bill debacle, the BPI has tried to take the commendable moral high-ground in one area and that was in condemning the actions of companies such as ACS:Law and Davenport Lyons in sending out those threatening letters which said “pay us for allegedly downloading or go to court”. As many legal experts pointed out, taking the matter to court would likely result in the case being thrown out because, in court, an IP address alone would be unlikely to be rigourous enough evidence to secure a win. It’s part of the reason that the Digital Economy Bill tries to circumvent due process. Under the #debill tribunal an IP address is enough. Under court conditions, it’s less likely to be acceptable. Now the BPI has come out and essentially said; well if it’s good enough for ACS:Law then it’s good enough for us – get out your wallets consumers, if you won’t give us your money willingly, we’ll try and take it by force.

The real question though, is, in publicly stating they intend to start suing the few worst offenders, what message are they sending out or what aim are they trying to achieve? If it’s to scaremonger the rest of the country in to line, it won’t work, because they’ve already admitted that it’s unlikely the casual downloader will fall under their remit for being sued. If this action won’t affect most people who do download then as a rule-by-fear tactic it’s ineffective.

If it is to recoup the £200m/whatever pseudo-losses they claim to suffer (which have just been discredited by the US Government no less) then how is bankrupting a few already skint students going to achieve that? And while on that topic, how is threatening or imposing anyone with massive fines going to convince anyone to start buying music? “Oh yes Mr Taylor, sorry for downloading all those tracks! Here’s your £25,000 fine! By the way, I am now financially destroyed and have been publicly ruined by your company so *obviously* now I’m going to rush out and spend the money I no longer have on the industry who did this to me!”

The BPI is fast becoming the abusive husband who expects to dole out endless abuse on those it has a relationship with and then waits for that partner to come back cowed to suffer more of the same. Every new step in the fight against downloading is another slap in the face to the very consumers they expect to buy their product in the first place. Enough is enough.

Again we ask the question of what do you value more? A few Kasabian CDs and a couple of overpriced iTunes downloads of Lily Allen tracks, or the ability to listen to and share and enjoy music without being forced to live in fear of suffering bank-breaking fines and your entire social, creative and business connections through the internet severed to serve the needs of a few well-off middle-aged men with little interest in the art of creating and more interest in the act of controlling.

If you want to stop this, you can. Just stop buying big label music. Go give your money to the people creating the music, not the ones controlling it. The BPI-umbrella labels are showing you that all they want your credit card number and in return they will give you nothing but contempt and abuse. If you buy music from people who ask you to do so under such threats as the Digital Economy Bill and suing you, then you condone their actions.

Boycott the BPI.

So where do we go now? What to do in a world where the government just took control of the internet away from the people and ISPs and placed it in to the hands of a small special interest group that makes up a very small fraction of what the overall system is used for?

The answer I’m afraid is not to stick your head in the sand. As well-intentioned as the http://whatdebill.org/ concept is, it has already been easily targeted by the media as a childish reactionary movement[*]. A simple target for those in power to use to undermine the genuine anger that is being felt out there. It’s already be made clear by the raft of ignored letters to MPs and the fruitless petitions and the batted away phone calls that polite discourse has no effect on those who wine and dine with the moguls.

The only answer left to the people of the UK is action. Sadly you have to get off your sofas and do something. It’s hard, but it’s necessary. The British politicians (for good reason) will quite happily continue to railroad through these absurd and Big Brother like bills as long as they believe that their biggest opposition is a handful of geeky bloggers blogging away while the rest of the UK sits on its collective asses reading Heat magazine or in thrall to the latest asinine “cliffhanger” on Eastenders. The french know that if they sit at home ranting on a blog, the government will ignore them but if they go out and do something the government suddenly listen. Civil disobedience and strikes. Anything that causes a disruption to how things ought to be make politicians nervous, not 200 of us nerds outside Parliament with our placards. Witness how antsy the government got over Unite and the RMT strikes compared with how they reacted to the #debill protests.

What if hotels and libraries closed their doors in protest at being threatened with “technical measures”? What if Google/YouTube took it’s services offline for a week in protest at potential web-blocking? What if the biggest ISPs shut down their networks for 24/48/72 hours in protest at being asked to be complicit in harassing their own customers on the basis of an unprovable accusation? Then and only then would government, and the public at large, start to listen. I know these suggestions are pie-in-the-sky and unlikely to ever happen, but it’s the only kind of action that will get the message across. The message is you as government serve the good of the people first, not the whims of big business executives and their shoddy statistics. This is a music industry bail-out at the expense of swathes of civil liberties and businesses who have updated their models to embrace the internet and it is wrong. But to do nothing other than launch a few ranty websites with no physical actions to back them up is just as wrong.

The first step you can make is the obvious and self-serving one and join our boycott. As the MPs in opposition pointed out yesterday a 70% reduction in file-sharing in no way guarantees a single penny of extra revenue to the record industry and their so-called ‘lost sales’. This isn’t just about depriving them of profits. It’s a statement that we will not support or condone those who would abuse the powers of government to attack the general public in such a wide-ranging and disproportionate way. Support the artists embracing the new models. Give *them* your money. Show these dinosaurs that it is the artist who are independent and embracing the new Creative Commons culture who are the future. A musician on 5Live this afternoon said he makes more revenue from his music released on voluntary-donation Creative Commons than he does on the music he releases on iTunes. That says it all. We’re not saying don’t spend any money on music, ever; that’s crazy. Just spend it wisely. Support new talent you discover and like, not new partially engineered talent record executives have decided you will like. We have provided access to the resources to tell you if big business behind the #debill is supporting artists you are buying. You have to decide what is more important; buying a few Lady Gaga MP3s, or doing your part to ensure the security of the internet as an integral tool for day-to-day life, not a tool for the music industry to abuse as it sees fit.

More than just an industry boycott has to be done though. Government has to know how angry people are. How damaging this is. There is an election in a month. Already Labour, Conservatives and LibDems have gone in to tittle-tattle overdrive. Labour wants to drive on the surveillance state. Conservatives love big business like the music industry. The LibDems have yet to prove themselves as anything other than say-anything vote-chasers. You have to take the decision to vote this year. You have to take the decision to research your MPs and your PPCs. You have to think long and hard about the people you are going to choose to represent you. For every one Tom Watson there are almost literally a hundred more who will either cow to the whips or who will decide that opening a local bowling green is more important than taking part in key votes. Using the #debill as an excuse for your “voter apathy” is exactly what the architects of these kinds of bills rely on. They want you to sit at home blogging instead of voting while the rest of the population votes based on cider tax or fudged National Insurance claims. Every vote counts. Every action counts. Boycott the music industry. Research and vote wisely in the election. And decide what else needs to be done to make government accountable to you and not the likes of David Geffen.

Source: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmtoday/cmdebate/32.htm

• Adam Afriyie
• rh Mr. Douglas Alexander
• Mr. Graham Allen
• Mr. David Anderson
• Mr. Ian Austin
• Mr. Adrian Bailey
• Mr. William Bain
• Vera Baird
• rh Mr. Kevin Barron
• rh John Battle
• Hugh Bayley
• rh Margaret Beckett
• Mr. Joe Benton
• Roger Berry
• Mr. Clive Betts
• Liz Blackman
• Mr. Bob Blizzard
• rh Mr. Ben Bradshaw
• Kevin Brennan
• rh Mr. Nicholas Brown
• rh Des Browne
• Chris Bryant
• Ms Karen Buck
• Ms Dawn Butler
• rh Mr. Liam Byrne
• rh Mr. Richard Caborn
• David Cairns
• Mr. Alan Campbell
• Mr. Ian Cawsey
• Ben Chapman
• Mr. Michael Clapham
• Paul Clark
• rh Mr. Charles Clarke
• Mr. David Clelland
• rh Ann Clwyd
• Mr. Vernon Coaker
• Ann Coffey
• Harry Cohen
• Michael Connarty
• Rosie Cooper
• rh Yvette Cooper
• Mary Creagh
• Mrs. Ann Cryer
• Mr. Jim Cunningham
• Tony Cunningham
• Mr. Ian Davidson
• Mr. Quentin Davies
• Mrs. Janet Dean
• Jim Dobbin
• rh Frank Dobson
• Mr. Frank Doran
• Angela Eagle
• Maria Eagle
• Clive Efford
• Mrs. Louise Ellman
• Jim Fitzpatrick
• rh Caroline Flint
• Barbara Follett
• Mr. Michael Foster (Worcester)
• Michael Jabez Foster (Hastings and Rye)
• Dr. Hywel Francis
• Mike Gapes
• Barry Gardiner
• rh Mr. Bruce George
• Linda Gilroy
• rh Paul Goggins
• Helen Goodman
• Mr. Mike Hall
• Mr. David Hamilton
• rh Mr. David Hanson
• rh Ms Harriet Harman
• Mr. Dai Havard
• Mr. John Hayes
• rh John Healey
• Mr. Doug Henderson
• Mr. Mark Hendrick
• Stephen Hesford
• rh Keith Hill
• Meg Hillier
• Mrs. Sharon Hodgson
• rh Mr. Geoffrey Hoon
• Phil Hope
• Kelvin Hopkins
• Stewart Hosie
• Mrs. Joan Humble
• Mr. Jeremy Hunt
• rh Mr. John Hutton
• Dr. Brian Iddon
• Mr. Eric Illsley
• rh Mr. Adam Ingram
• Huw Irranca-Davies
• Glenda Jackson
• Mrs. Siân C. James
• rh Alan Johnson
• Ms Diana R. Johnson
• Helen Jones
• Mr. Kevan Jones
• Mr. Martyn Jones
• rh Tessa Jowell
• Barbara Keeley
• Alan Keen
• Ann Keen
• rh Ruth Kelly
• Mr. Fraser Kemp
• rh Mr. Sadiq Khan
• Mr. David Kidney
• Dr. Stephen Ladyman
• rh Mr. David Lammy
• Mr. Bob Laxton
• David Lepper
• Tom Levitt
• Mr. Ivan Lewis
• Martin Linton
• Ian Lucas
• Andrew Mackinlay
• rh Mr. Denis MacShane
• John Mann
• rh Mr. Thomas McAvoy
• Steve McCabe
• Sarah McCarthy-Fry
• John McDonnell
• rh Mr. Pat McFadden
• rh John McFall
• Ann McKechin
• rh Mr. Tony McNulty
• Gillian Merron
• rh Alun Michael
• rh Mr. Alan Milburn
• Andrew Miller
• Laura Moffatt
• Chris Mole
• Jessica Morden
• Kali Mountford
• Mr. George Mudie
• Mr. Chris Mullin
• Meg Munn
• Dr. Doug Naysmith
• Dan Norris
• rh Mr. Mike O’Brien
• Mr. Edward O’Hara
• Sandra Osborne
• Albert Owen
• Ian Pearson
• Mr. Greg Pope
• Bridget Prentice
• rh Dawn Primarolo
• Mr. Ken Purchase
• rh James Purnell
• rh Mr. Nick Raynsford
• Mr. Jamie Reed
• rh John Reid
• John Robertson
• Joan Ruddock
• Martin Salter
• Alison Seabeck
• Mr. Virendra Sharma
• Jim Sheridan
• Mr. Siôn Simon
• Mr. Dennis Skinner
• Hillsborough) Ms Angela C. Smith (Sheffield
• rh Angela E. Smith (Basildon)
• rh Mr. John Spellar
• Ian Stewart
• Dr. Howard Stoate
• rh Dr. Gavin Strang
• rh Mr. Jack Straw
• Mr. Gerry Sutcliffe
• Mark Tami
• Mr. Gareth Thomas
• rh Mr. Stephen Timms
• rh Mr. Don Touhig
• Jon Trickett
• Kitty Ussher
• Mr. Edward Vaizey
• Mr. Dave Watts
• Dr. Alan Whitehead
• rh Malcolm Wicks
• rh Mr. Alan Williams
• Mrs. Betty Williams
• rh Mr. Michael Wills
• Phil Wilson
• Mr. David Winnick
• rh Ms Rosie Winterton
• rh Mr. Shaun Woodward
• Mr. Phil Woolas
• David Wright
• Mr. Iain Wright
• Dr. Tony Wright
• Derek Wyatt

(I don’t have a full list yet but will have it up ASAP) And as if to add insult to injury, here is a list of MPs who were off doing something apparently far more interesting and important than the job we pay them to do and so didn’t vote at all…

• John Bercow

  Alan Haselhurst

  Sylvia Heal

  Michael Lord

  Peter Ainsworth

  Michael Ancram

  James Arbuthnot

  Peter Atkinson

  Richard Bacon

  Tony Baldry

  Gregory Barker

  John Baron

  Henry Bellingham

  Richard Benyon

  Paul Beresford

  Brian Binley

  Crispin Blunt

  Peter Bone

  Tim Boswell

  Peter Bottomley

  Graham Brady

  Julian Brazier

  James Brokenshire

  Angela Browning

  Simon Burns

  David Burrowes

  Alistair Burt

  John Butterfill

  David Cameron

  Douglas Carswell

  James Clappison

  Greg Clark

  Kenneth Clarke

  Geoffrey Clifton-Brown

  Patrick Cormack

  Geoffrey Cox

  Stephen Crabb

  David Curry

  David Davies

  Philip Davies

  Jonathan Djanogly

  Stephen Dorrell

  Nadine Dorries

  James Duddridge

  Alan Duncan

  Iain Duncan Smith

  Philip Dunne

  Tobias Ellwood

  Nigel Evans

  David Evennett

  Michael Fabricant

  Mark Field

  Liam Fox

  Mark Francois

  Christopher Fraser

  Roger Gale

  Edward Garnier

  David Gauke

  Nick Gibb

  Cheryl Gillan

  Paul Goodman

  Robert Goodwill

  Michael Gove

  James Gray

  Chris Grayling

  Damian Green

  Justine Greening

  John Greenway

  Dominic Grieve

  John Gummer

  William Hague

  Philip Hammond

  Stephen Hammond

  Greg Hands

  Mark Harper

  Oliver Heald

  David Heathcoat-Amory

  Charles Hendry

  Nick Herbert

  Mark Hoban

  Douglas Hogg

  Philip Hollobone

  Adam Holloway

  John Horam

  Michael Howard

  Gerald Howarth

  John Howell

  Nick Hurd

  Michael Jack

  Stewart Jackson

  Bernard Jenkin

  David Jones

  Daniel Kawczynski

  Robert Key

  Julie Kirkbride

  Greg Knight

  Eleanor Laing

  Jacqui Lait

  Mark Lancaster

  Andrew Lansley

  Edward Leigh

  Oliver Letwin

  Ian Liddell-Grainger

  David Lidington

  Peter Lilley

  Tim Loughton

  Peter Luff

  Andrew MacKay

  David Maclean

  Anne Main

  Humfrey Malins

  John Maples

  Michael Mates

  Francis Maude

  Theresa May

  Anne McIntosh

  Patrick McLoughlin

  Patrick Mercer

  Maria Miller

  Anne Milton

  Andrew Mitchell

  Malcolm Moss

  David Mundell

  Andrew Murrison

  Bob Neill

  Brooks Newmark

  Stephen O’Brien

  George Osborne

  Richard Ottaway

  James Paice

  Owen Paterson

  Michael Penning

  John Penrose

  Eric Pickles

  Mark Prisk

  Mark Pritchard

  John Randall

  John Redwood

  Malcolm Rifkind

  Andrew Robathan

  Hugh Robertson

  Laurence Robertson

  Andrew Rosindell

  David Ruffley

  Lee Scott

  Andrew Selous

  Grant Shapps

  Richard Shepherd

  Mark Simmonds

  Keith Simpson

  Chloe Smith

  Nicholas Soames

  Caroline Spelman

  Michael Spicer

  Richard Spring

  John Stanley

  Anthony Steen

  Gary Streeter

  Graham Stuart

  Desmond Swayne

  Hugo Swire

  Robert Syms

  Peter Tapsell

  Ian Taylor

  Edward Timpson

  David Tredinnick

  Andrew Turner

  Andrew Tyrie

  Shailesh Vara

  Peter Viggers

  Theresa Villiers

  Charles Walker

  Ben Wallace

  Robert Walter

  Nigel Waterson

  Angela Watkinson

  John Whittingdale

  Ann Widdecombe

  Bill Wiggin

  David Willetts

  David Wilshire

  Robert Wilson

  Ann Winterton

  Nicholas Winterton

  Jeremy Wright

  Tim Yeo

  George Young

  Gregory Campbell

  Nigel Dodds

  Jeffrey M Donaldson

  William McCrea

  Peter Robinson

  David Simpson

  Sammy Wilson

  Derek Conway

  Andrew Pelling

  Bob Spink

  Richard Taylor

  Robert Wareing

  Clare Short

  Nick Ainger

  Bob Ainsworth

  Janet Anderson

  Hilary Armstrong

  Charlotte Atkins

  John Austin

  Edward Balls

  Gordon Banks

  Celia Barlow

  Anne Begg

  Stuart Bell

  Hilary Benn

  Roberta Blackman-Woods

  Hazel Blears

  David Blunkett

  David Borrow

  Gordon Brown

  Lyn Brown

  Russell Brown

  Des Browne

  Richard Burden

  Andy Burnham

  Stephen Byers

  Ronnie Campbell

  Martin Caton

  David Chaytor

  Katy Clark

  Tom Clarke

  Frank Cook

  Jim Cousins

  David Crausby

  Jon Cruddas

  John Cummings

  Claire Curtis-Thomas

  Alistair Darling

  Wayne David

  John Denham

  Jim Devine

  Parmjit Dhanda

  Brian H Donohoe

  Jim Dowd

  Natascha Engel

  Jeff Ennis

  Bill Etherington

  Paul Farrelly

  Frank Field

  Mark Fisher

  Robert Flello

  Paul Flynn

  Roger Godsiff

  Nia Griffith

  Nigel Griffiths

  Andrew Gwynne

  Peter Hain

  Patrick Hall

  Fabian Hamilton

  Tom Harris

  Stephen Hepburn

  John Heppell

  Patricia Hewitt

  David Heyes

  Margaret Hodge

  Jimmy Hood

  Kim Howells

  Lindsay Hoyle

  Beverley Hughes

  Brian Jenkins

  Helen Jones

  Gerald Kaufman

  Sally Keeble

  Jane Kennedy

  Jim Knight

  Ivan Lewis

  Tony Lloyd

  Fiona Mactaggart

  Khalid Mahmood

  Shahid Malik

  Judy Mallaber

  Rob Marris

  Gordon Marsden

  Eric Martlew

  Chris McCafferty

  Kerry McCarthy

  Ian McCartney

  Siobhain McDonagh

  James McGovern

  Anne McGuire

  Shona McIsaac

  Rosemary McKenna

  Michael Meacher

  Alan Meale

  David Miliband

  Edward Miliband

  Anne Moffat

  Madeleine Moon

  Margaret Moran

  Julie Morgan

  Elliot Morley

  Denis Murphy

  Jim Murphy

  Paul Murphy

  Bill Olner

  James Plaskitt

  Stephen Pound

  Gordon Prentice

  John Prescott

  Gwyn Prosser

  Bill Rammell

  John Reid

  Linda Riordan

  Geoffrey Robinson

  Terry Rooney

  Frank Roy

  Lindsay Roy

  Chris Ruane

  Christine Russell

  Joan Ryan

  Mohammad Sarwar

  Jonathan R Shaw

  Barry Sheerman

  Marsha Singh

  Andrew Slaughter

  Andrew Smith

  Geraldine Smith

  Jacqui Smith

  John Smith

  Anne Snelgrove

  Peter Soulsby

  Helen Southworth

  Phyllis Starkey

  Graham Stringer

  Gisela Stuart

  Dari Taylor

  Emily Thornberry

  Paddy Tipping

  Desmond Turner

  Neil Turner

  Derek Twigg

  Keith Vaz

  Rudi Vis

  Joan Walley

  Lynda Waltho

  Claire Ward

  Mike Wood

  Anthony D Wright

  Tony Wright

  Danny Alexander

  Norman Baker

  Tom Brake

  Annette Brooke

  Jeremy Browne

  Malcolm Bruce

  Lorely Burt

  Vincent Cable

  Menzies Campbell

  Nicholas Clegg

  Tim Farron

  Andrew George

  Sandra Gidley

  Julia Goldsworthy

  Nick Harvey

  David Heath

  John Hemming

  Paul Holmes

  Martin Horwood

  Christopher Huhne

  Mark Hunter

  Charles Kennedy

  Susan Kramer

  Norman Lamb

  David Laws

  John Leech

  Michael Moore

  Greg Mulholland

  Mark Oaten

  John Pugh

  Alan Reid

  Willie Rennie

  Daniel Rogerson

  Paul Rowen

  Adrian Sanders

  Robert Smith

  Andrew Stunell

  Jo Swinson

  Matthew Taylor

  Sarah Teather

  Steve Webb

  Mark Williams

  Roger Williams

  Stephen Williams

  Phil Willis

  Jennifer Willott

  Richard Younger-Ross

  Elfyn Llwyd

  Hywel Williams

  George Galloway

  Angus MacNeil

  John Mason

  Angus Robertson

  Alex Salmond

  Michael Weir

  Pete Wishart

  Gerry Adams

  Pat Doherty

  Michelle Gildernew

  Martin McGuinness

  Conor Murphy

  Mark Durkan

  Alasdair McDonnell

  Eddie McGrady

  Lady Hermon

Thanks to Twitter users @paddyduke @bigdanprice @mistertim @simonstreet @28481k @jon_melville @katybairstow in compiling this list. Drop amendments/additions you spot to @bpiboycott

Getting started is simple. Just put down that CD,  move the mouse away from the “buy” button on Amazon, do a bit of research on what you are buying and make a decisive choice to show big business that it is the legal paying customers are the ones who keep it in or out of business, not the government. We do not choose to download illegally, we choose not to buy. We do not support obscene profit margins for those not responsible for creating the music we listen to, we support the artists. We do not get told how we will access our media, we tell you how you will supply it to us.

Music First. Business Last. Join the Boycott.