Dr. Kim Howells, you’re so funny!

You can’t have missed Kim Howells’ com­i­cal out­burst accus­ing Robbie Williams of aiding and abet­ting evil crim­i­nal over­lords, in response to our Rob’s com­ments in favour of people shar­ing his songs over the internet.

In saying that piracy is a ‘great idea’, Williams is doing the work for inter­na­tional gangs involved in drugs and pros­ti­tu­tion who find music piracy an excel­lent way of laun­der­ing their prof­its. - Kim Howells

Yes, Min­is­ter, every time I share an Mp3 with some­one I make sure I con­tact my local organ­ised crime rep­re­sen­ta­tive and hand over a few quid.

For a bit of sport, Tom Coates has unearthed Dr. Howells’ email address: kim.howells@culture.gov.uk.

Obvi­ously, this isn’t the most impor­tant issue you could be cor­re­spond­ing with a Min­is­ter about just now, but it’s impos­si­ble to resist explain­ing exactly why he’s so very very wrong. Not for the first time, either. Can you remem­ber which gov­ern­ment source placed blame for Britain’s emerg­ing gun cul­ture squarely on the shoul­ders of So Solid Crew? Or which cul­tural grandee believes the Turner Prize nom­i­nees to be mere makers of ‘conceptual bullshit’?

Prat.

Update: That’s obvi­ously not the best email address avail­able: “the DCMS aims to reply within 18 work­ing days. This is an auto­mated response from an unat­tended mailbox.”

Update: I did get a reply in the end. See More on Music Piracy and File­shar­ing.

Posted at 5pm on 21/01/03 by Jack Mottram to the art and culture category.
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