File sharing has hit the headlines again over the last few weeks – and it creates quite diverse reactions.

On the one hand there are those who say that the music industry (in particular) became greedy and deserve some of their own medicine. On the other there is an argument about a lack of money stifling talent. One argument is being played out by Radiohead and Lily Allen

It’s a difficult call. But a survey yesterday suggested that people who do download music illegally also spend £77 per year on music! When Limewire was initially launched I though it would be great to fill in gaps in my music collection, but I quickly realised that there were lots of poor quality downloads – and in some cases some quite dodgy stuff too. So I pretty much gave up. The price of CD’s had dropped and I tend to buy the CD I want and rip it into itunes for use on my various ipods (one in the car, one in my work bag, one ipod shuffle for my bike!)

There is a happy medium in the form of Spotify – which I think is really great (the free service). If you can tolerate the ads – which are a bit like commercial radio anyway, you can pretty much listen to whatever you like, including new releases.

“The scale of unlawful file-sharing poses a real threat to the long-term sustainability of our creative industries,” said a [stuffy] spokesman for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Or perhaps it poses a threat to those industries to make money – and pay taxes?

And the Government are threatening to cut off anyone caught repeatedly downloading as part of the Digital Economy Bill. Big brother will be watching you.

The sharing community has gone much further though. 10 days ago I took some photos at The Hockley Hustle of Five Card Trip – a band in which my son plays drums. I converted about 20 images to black and white and posted them on facebook. I was really pleased to see that some of the photos have been used by the band as their profile photos. They haven’t acknowledged me as the photographer – and technically I do own the copyright. But I think the world has moved on. An acknowledgement would be nice – but only for my ego. I am genuinely delighted they think the images are good enough to represent them.

And so perhaps we are entering a new era, where there is simply so much digital information out there that it will get shared around. And I think we have to embrace it – and enjoy the fact that more people are seeing our work? In the meantime, I will continue to buy CD’s as I get the best quality. And I also own the hi-res versions of all of my images – if someone wants them for a poster….

And if anyone knows where I can get a copy of Clifford T Wards ‘Cricket’ please let me know….