Singer Lily Allen last week started a blog to publish artists' views on the rise of music piracy, which has led to a significant decline in revenue for the British music industry and chart-topping acts such as James Blunt and Take That's Gary Barlow have endorsed the Smile star's push for change.
One prominent representative group, the Featured Artists Coalition (FAC), has caused a rift in the industry, after announcing it had 'agreed to disagree' with record labels over plans to suspend internet accounts for users persistently sharing media files.
Allen has criticised the FAC for its apparent implication that 'file sharing music is fine' and now Sir Elton has also come out in opposition to the FAC's remarks, saying he supports government plans to punish filesharers.
'I am of the view that the unchecked proliferation of illegal downloading (even on a 'non-commercial' basis) will have a seriously detrimental effect on musicians, and particularly young musicians and those composers who are not performing artists,' he wrote in a letter to business secretary Lord Mandelson.
While Sir Elton and R 'n' B singer Taio Cruz are among Allen's backers, the FAC features equally prominent members, including Annie Lennox, Tom Jones and Blur drummer Dave Rowntree.
The divide between artists could jeopardise the industry fight's against music piracy with a government consultation period on the matter ending next week.
Allen has stressed she is not seeking a public clash with the FAC, stressing: 'I want us artists to stand together on this'.
However, she added: 'They've released a new statement which just doesn't make sense. The FAC seems to be viewing the government's proposed legislation as an attack on freedom and liberty, but stealing's not really a human right, is it?'
In response, the FAC said its opposition to suspending internet access should not be construed as an implication that 'we condone illicit file-sharing. This is not the case and never has been'.
'However, we seriously question the wisdom of seeking to deal with this problem by terminating the internet connections of individual music fans,' a statement added.
The FAC are behind government action on websites that make profits from music filesharing, labelling the sites 'thieving rascals'.
'The focus of our objection is the proposed treatment of ordinary music fans who download a few tracks so as to check out our material before they buy,' the statement continued.
'For those of us who don't get played on the radio or mentioned in the music media... peer-to-peer recommendation is an important form of promotion.'
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