Ex-EMI Boss Says Fighting Piracy is Useless

Former EMI Director Per-Eirik Johansen's has spoken up on his thoughts on piracy now that he is no longer involved with the record label.  His latest viewpoint however is being shed in a much different light than it was when he was employed with the company. 

In 2004, Johansen defended the use of DRM with audio CDs against a lobby five thousand strong stating "I have neither the desire nor the ability to give out discs without copy protection."  He later continued "I can inform you that over the last five months, in EMI we have sold about 400,000 CDs with copy protection in Norway. In the same period we have received 28 complaints from consumers.  What we are talking about is a tiny, tiny little thing."

In his most recent post-EMI interview however, Johansen states that he now believes that the fight against piracy is useless, and that he disagrees that the act of file sharing is equal to theft.  When speaking of an earlier EMI anti-piracy initiative, Johansen confirmed that he agreed with the message of the campaign which says that there is a reason for copyright, but that "the main thing is that a whole generation already violates copyright, and the only thing we can do now is find better solutions."

Looking forward to the future of his own record label, Johansen still sees hope for the industry through new business models and the always growing live concert market.  "There has been a revolution, and in the wake of this, it is very chaotic. Today there is an entrepreneurial spirit that is both healthy and exciting. We do not know how the industry will look in a year or two, but I am convinced that the future looks promising."