Last monday, in The Guardian a nuanced article by Helienne Lindvall appeared that expresses views about the future of copyright similar to those of Futureofcopyright. Starting point of the article are the opinions of two bond managers on how to distribute music in the internet era and the practical results of the goodwill model by one of them.

U2's manager Paul McGuinness wrote the article "How to save the music industry" in GC. He argues that the demand for free music is unsustainable. He acknowledges that downloading is no major problem for the band, but that this isn't the case for the national music industry in countries like Spain and Brazil. McGuinness also speaks out against the legal procedures against file-sharers, but embraces the graduate response measures in the UK Digital Economy Act.

The manager of the Irish band Gama Bomb commented on the article in an open letter. Byrne found McGuinness' article "well-reasoned, well-informed and commendable in its aims - though it's crazily short sighted." According to Byrne it is unrealistic to fight file-sharing. Musicians and record companies would do better to embrace free content distribution and to focus on creating goodwill and making money by selling CDs, merchandise and tickets.

Lindvall describes how this worked out for Byrne's band. The band's label expected a big increase, but instead the new and via Rapidshare released album sold almost exactly as many CDs as the traditionally sold album the year before. Yet the new album was downloaded over 400,000 times. That might contribute to their popularity, which they could perhaps capitalize on their upcoming tour.

According to Lindvall the above is a perfect example of the argument that each artist should be free to decide how they wish to distribute their work. For free, via Creative Commons or only on vinyl or CDs in the store. This enables the artist to find out what kind of publishing works best for their scene, audience band or music. And if it doesn't work out... have the possibility to proceed with a different revenue model. The goodwill model may have a limited shelf life.