“P2P is like stealing a CD from a shop!” “We have to protect artists who are being robbed by consumers on the Internet”. Big music and film companies are continuously feeding us claims like this on television, on the street and in the newspapers - painting private consumers as pirates and criminal. The same companies publish guides telling consumers what they cannot do in the digital world. For these companies, consumers have no rights in buying CDs, DVDs or other digital material - apart from a few generously bestowed exceptions!

Under the heading of Digital Rights Management (DRM) new technologies are being used to limit or prohibit perfectly legitimate practices. “Exemplary" legal cases are being prosecuted and users threatened with huge penalties for downloading music or films on the Internet. The industry hides behind the artists that it claims to defend, alienating their fans and supporters.

We know that there is a serious global problem of piracy. Consumers should not buy counterfeit copies of CDs and DVDs; too often these products are made in large numbers by organised criminal, and probably also terrorist, gangs. On the other hand, private consumers are not criminals or terrorists and the industry must stop portraying them as such.

The time has come to guarantee consumers certain basic rights in the digital world, and to tell them what they can do with their digital hardware/content. This is our message in this campaign.