[Infowarrior] - Banned musician, aged 12, lays siege to BPI HQ

[Richard Forno]

Banned musician, aged 12, lays siege to BPI HQ
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=33734

Miffed miss is up in arms

By INQUIRER newsdesk: Wednesday 16 August 2006, 16:37
12 YEAR-OLD singer-songwriter Amy Thomas staged a protest outside the
headquarters of the British music industry yesterday, following a decision
to ban her from a new school kids' music chart because of her views on
downloading.

Amy and a "flash mob" of 50 children gathered outside of the office of the
British Phonographic Industry (BPI) for 15 minutes holding balloons with
messages of support for the young singer.

Amy had been chosen as one of ten young artists to feature on the My Music
chart that launches in October across 1,400 UK schools.

But her inclusion was blocked by the BPI after its snoops discovered she is
signed to Flowerburger Records, an independent record label which is running
an online petition drumming up oposition to the BPI's policy of suing music
fans who use p2p websites.

Amy gained a following of schoolies after posting details of her plight on
kids' networking site Bebo. Its members are now encouraging each other to
boycott the My Music chart in favour of Amy¹s debut single, Just Smile,
which is released the same week as the schools¹ chart.

Holding a balloon with 'Just Smile' emblazoned across it, the
publicity-seeking youngster said of the practice of downloading songs from
P2P sites: "All my friends do it. It just seems like the natural thing to
do." µ