Stelios appeals court judgement as Robin Hood of music

By Matt Whipp

Posted on 6 Feb 2003 at 16:35

In a letter to the Financial Times, yesterday, easyInternetcafe chairman Stelios launched an assault on what he called the music industry 'cartel' that is overcharging consumers.

Stelios asserted: 'Any cartel that can benefit from overcharging consumers would wish to maintain its privileged position.'

'Let us not be distracted from the main point here which is that the music industry has long been charging consumers rip-off prices for music and they are now paying the price for their own greed,' he added.

He accused the music industry of not doing enough to make music cheaper for consumers by using the direct selling methods afforded by the Internet and praised Robbie Williams for saying that all forms of music downloads were 'great'.

The letter was written in support of easyInternetcafe's appeal against a court decision last week that found the company guilty of copyright infringement.

EasyInternetcafe is to appeal the court's summary judgement on the basis that allowing customers to download music in its cafés is equal to the legal practice of consumers recording television programs on VCRs in order to watch them at a later date.

The case was brought by the British Phonographic Industry, on behalf of UK record labels that include Sony and EMI, and alleged that easyInternetcafe was guilty of copyright infringement by allowing - and for a time charging - customers to download and burn commercial music.

There was no comment availbale from BPI.