Who are the real pirates?

it was many years ago that Bertolt Brecht
asked the eternal question...

"what is the crime of robbing a bank,
next to the crime of owning one?"

one might ask the same question
of the music industry these days,
when it comes to 'pirates'...

Edgar Bronfman Jr convicted
in Vivendi case

The Warner Music Group chairman, Edgar Bronfman Jr, was convicted today of insider
trading and fined €5m (£4.2m) over his conduct
as vice-chairman of French company Vivendi nearly a decade ago.


it seems that shareholders in Vivendi feel they were misled about the financial health of the company after an acquisition buying spree by  the former Vivendi chief executive Jean-Marie Messier...


With Vivendi Universal SA on the edge of financial turmoil in 2002, Edgar Bronfman Jr. began selling shares in the company using inside knowledge that the business was in shambles, according to allegations made in a French court.



Mr. Bronfman is appealing the judgment
but in the meantime, he can take comfort
in the knowledge that it could have been much worse.

While $6.7 million US might seem like a lot of money, his fine would have been much larger
if he was guilty of downloading 100 songs from the internet...




read the whole story at The Guardian

and for more background, try the Globe and Mail

- 30 -

.