Stephen Fry: People will tell snotty music labels to f*** off

 

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By Benny Har-Even

Posted on 4 Feb 2009 at 17:56

Stephen Fry has admitted he uses pirated software and lambasted the music industry for its attitude to copyright theft, in a controversial speech for Apple.

Stephen Fry, currently the unofficial champion for social-networking phenomenon Twitter, has broken the 100,000 follower mark just in time for a talk at Apple's Regent Street store in London.

After the talk, where he recounted the early history of computers, and the personal history of his digital life, he answered questions from the audience where he was congratulated for becoming the second most followed person on the planet on Twitter, after Barack Obama. "I'm the vice president of Twitter," Fry joked.

Fry's Twitter count only hit the 50,000 mark recently, but received a massive boost following his appearance on the BBC website and the Friday Night on Jonathan Ross TV chat show, taking him over the 100,000 mark in only a few days.

Fry was asked for his thoughts on the Creative Commons group, devoted to lifting the shackles of copyright. The actor and writer admitted he was very much in favour. "I'm not excited about my copyrights," he said. "If someone stole large wodges of my works I'm sure my publishers would get very upset, but I'd say, 'Golly, that's a pity'. I'm in an overpaid profession so if some of it leaks away, then tough."

He also admitted: "I have pirated software. But if that's a shocking announcement then how naive can you be - I bet you have too and your house is full of stuff you've bought, too."

Fry also presented the case that when cassette tapes were released in the 1980s record sales went up. "If the creative industry gets too snotty about it, people will just see them in them in their Rolls Royce and just say F*** off."

He also gave strong views on the issue of internet censorship. "The internet is like a city - it has red light districts, all kinds of weird people, who want to con and steal from you, but my god, they're exciting places to live and to be a citizen of it is a great privilege. Yet people are trying to control the internet like they would never dare with a city."

He observed that Twitter terrified the press as it gives celebrities a right of reply direct to their audience. "If you could get a big enough following it could be bigger than any paper," he said. "There'd be no need to own a newspaper. I won't weep any tears if that happens."