Is piracy selfish, or is it pop culture? Is it stifling creativity, or is it harmless?
Brooklyn based band Ghost Beach wants to start a debate on music piracy, and they've done it in spectacular fashion by controversially putting up a billboard in Times Square, with slogans such as "Piracy is Progress" or "Piracy is Robbery" being displayed.
It is all part of the band's Artists vs Artists campaign, that asks artists to pick a side in the piracy debate.
The band received the expensive billboard space on Times Square as part of a licensing deal, and instead of advertising themselves, they decided to promote a debate that, perhaps, the industry needs to have.
Artists can take to Twitter and use the hashtags #artistsagainstpiracy and #artistsforpiracy to make their views known. At the time of writing, 318 artists have come out against piracy, compared to 3,105 for.
Consumers can also pick a side by going to the website, and choosing to buy, or download for free, the band's latest album.
As for the band's views, the band's frontman Josh Ocean told Torrentfreak that, despite starting a debate that many may call one-sided (for piracy), and despite offering their album for free, Ghost Beach is "ultimately against piracy".
And their solution? "We believe in using new music sharing platforms to combat illegal downloading by offering the modern music consumer convenient choices when it comes to discovering and downloading new music," Josh added before continuing, "By giving music listeners the choice to buy, stream or download free from the artist, everybody wins and music is shared in a way that is convenient for listeners and respects the artists intellectual property."
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