Ed O'Brien and Lily Allen sign the artists' file-sharing compromise

Ed O'Brien was one of almost 100 British musicians who met for three hours at Air Studios in Hampstead, north London, on Thursday 24 September and agreed that persistent file-sharers should not be cut off from the internet. Instead they should get two warning letters and then have their broadband squeezed, slowed until sharing files is impractical while email and the web still work. Lily Allen, who had said she would not come, was cheered as she walked in. Her name is on the statement with Ed's, George Michael's, Annie Lennox's and Nick Mason's.

The government's plan, set out in August, is to suspend the accounts of persistent illegal file-sharers. Views on it are due five days after the meeting. Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has called suspension a last resort. On 10 September Ed, one of the directors of the Featured Artists Coalition, told BBC News the plan would fail. It's going to start a war which they'll never win. It won't work. It's as simple as that.⁵ His evidence was a friend who downloads films and has not paid for music in six years. Asked about the plan, the friend laughed and said he would carry on even if they cut him off. Dave Rowntree of Blur, a fellow director, said the industry should not make enemies of its fans.

Within the week Allen wrote on her MySpace blog that piracy was harming British music, though some really rich, successful artists, Mason and Ed by name, did not seem to think so. They do sell-out arena tours and have the biggest Ferrari collections in the world.⁷ The argument that file-sharing wins a new generation of fans suits big acts with back catalogues to sell, she wrote, not new ones. Patrick Wolf backed her; the coalition said she had grossly simplified its position. A separate anti-file-sharing blog she started came down after three days; she said she was getting too much abuse.

Ed answered on the BBC World Service. He agreed completely that file-sharing has consequences, and that Radiohead would not suffer from it though plenty of people had downloaded their music free; small bands suffer more. He still opposed disconnection, because threats would not change anyone's behaviour. Better, he said, to persuade fans that a healthy music scene means paying for some of the work, and for the labels to license far more widely and make downloads easier and cheaper.

Ed told BBC News the Air Studios meeting had been emotional and a little heated at times, that the artists will meet again, and that Allen was extremely brave to turn up. What she's done has been brilliant because she started the process where artists have stood up and said, you know what, there is a consequence to illegal file-sharing.⁸