Paul McCartney: Pirate Bay verdict 'fair'

Greg McKenzie at Coachella and Greg Cochrane in London
Newsbeat reporters

Paul McCartney headlined this year's Coachella festival in California

Paul McCartney has labelled last week's Pirate Bay verdict as "fair".

Four men were found guilty by a Swedish court of breaking copyright rules and ordered to repay damages to entertainment companies on 17 April.

The file-sharing website made millions of music and film files available to users for free.

Speaking to Newsbeat McCartney said: "If you get on a bus you've got to pay. And I think it's fair, you should pay your ticket."

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Artistic reward

Sir Paul McCartney, speaking before headlining US festival Coachella, said: "Anyone who does something good, particularly if you get really lucky and do a great artistic thing and have a mega hit, I think you should get rewarded for that.

"I'm in favour of that sort of thing."

He added: "The problem is you get a lot of young bands coming up and some of them aren't going to last forever so if they have a massive hit that's going to pay their mortgage forever.

"They're going to feed the children on that and if they don't get that money, if they don't see that money, I think it's a bit of a pity.

"I've been very lucky because my main era with the Beatles was at a time when everyone did get paid.

"Particularly for young bands and they've got a young family, I don't want to see them destitute after a couple of years when they were mega. So I think it's fair."

In pictures: Coachella music festival

Jules De Martino from The Ting Tings - also playing the American festival - agreed that new bands are the bracket most affected by illegal file sharing.

He said, "When you're a new band it really sucks, it is really hard.

"You should value art, even if it's a penny. Art has to have a bit of value, whatever that cost is."

The Tings Tings' lead-singer Katie White also commented: "I think there should be a five play rule or something. If you play a record more than five times you should buy it because you're getting pleasure from it."

Anyone who does something good, particularly if you get really lucky and do a great artistic thing and have a mega hit, I think you should get rewarded for that Sir Paul McCartney

However, some bands are more sympathetic towards internet users sharing files free of charge.

White Lies' lead singer Harry McVeigh said: "The band still makes money and they can still carry on making music so its not actually the worst thing in the world."

Four jailed

Following last week's trial site founders Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were all sentenced to 12 months in jail for breaching copyright and order to pay £3 million in damages.

Speaking after the verdict about the compensation, one of the men, Peter Sunde said, "We can't pay and we wouldn't pay."

The Pirate Bay website currently continues to operate.

Entertainment companies argued that the guilty verdict sent out a warning message to other file sharing websites.

The four Pirate Bay founders have already said they will appeal against their sentences.

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