The man who wants to be Australia's next Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, said today 'This idea that "hey presto" we are suddenly going to get 10 times the speed from something that isn't even built yet I find utterly implausible.'" "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." -- Arthur C. Clarke

"(...) by reading a few pages, its clear to me that Music writers represented by PRS for Music are largely clueless about what the Internet and YouTube means to the music industry. Kind of explains why the music industry is in as much decline â" and also why so much litigation takes place on the music writers behalf."

Question to poster: how does it follow from their statements that the music writers are clueless?

Granted, most of us feel that the music business has taken loads of wrong approaches - the sad lawsuits against individuals by the RIAA for example, or the music business not understanding the concept of selling more by giving away something else.

However, we are not talking record companies here. We are talking music WRITERS. Creators. People that compose the music and write lyrics, that have (in most cases) somebody else sing or play it. These people don't make money by performing the songs, or by marketing it in a clever way. In most cases, all they have is their royalties.

I don't claim to have the full answer to this complex issue, but to disqualify all the comments on the PRS for music website just like that is really quite silly.

Also, the fact that we all love YouTube and would hate to see it shutdown or block certain content is not a very good reason to counterattack anyone who's attacking their way of working.