Lily Allen and musicians group say no to file-sharing

A rift within the music industry over illegal file-sharing appears to have been healed after stars including Lily Allen and George Michael voted in favour of a 'three-strikes' approach to online pirates.

An industry divide had emerged, with the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) opposing government proposals to suspend the internet accounts of persistent offenders, while Allen gained support from Gary Barlow, James Blunt and Tinchy Stryder for publicising the damaging and costly effect of file sharing on musicians and industry workers.

But after a three-hour meeting in north London, musicians 'overwhelmingly voted' in favour of a government plan to send two warning letters to regular file-sharers before 'squeezing' their broadband connections.

In a statement after the meeting, artists explained the proposals would see internet speeds cut 'to a level which would render file-sharing of media files impractical while leaving basic email and web access'.

The industry's umbrella group UK Music had earlier sent business secretary Lord Mandelson a letter calling for written warnings for online pirates.

'We support government proposals which would see internet service providers (ISPs) send notifications and apply technical measures to impede and discourage the use of unlicensed peer-to-peer networks and to encourage the use of legitimate services,' it read.

'We agree that a clear distinction should be made between how technical measures are applied to the casual infringer, compared to how they are applied to the persistent infringer, with temporary suspension of broadband accounts being applicable only as a last resort.'

The 'historic' consensus among musicians comes mere days before a government consultation period on the subject was due to end.

Radiohead's Ed O'Brien, a vocal member of the FAC, said the meeting had at times become 'heated' but praised Allen for attending the meeting, after earlier saying she did not plan to after receiving abuse on an anti-file-sharing blog she had created.

The Smile star was 'extremely brave' to turn up, O'Brien told BBC News.

'She's taken a lot of flak for what she's said. 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,' he added.

'In the meeting, we didn't always agree but we came to an agreement that we thought was good for everyone.

'We're going to have further meetings like this, we're going to get together - we've realised the importance of doing this together,' he said.