Insurers Blame Fatal Stage Collapse on Illegal Music Sharing

[Andy Chalk]

Insurers Blame Fatal Stage Collapse on Illegal Music Sharing

Insurers are blaming the deaths and damage caused by a stage collapse at the Pukkelpop music festival in Belgium last month on illegal music downloading.

Pukkelpop, according to its Tragedy struck in 2011 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pukkelpop], however, as a severe storm on the first night knocked over tents, lighting towers and video screens and caused a stage to collapse, resulting in the deaths of five attendees and injuries to 70 more. The remainder of the concert was canceled.

But according to insurance companies, the real cause of the disaster wasn't the storm. It was illegal music downloading.

I shit you not, and I'll give you a moment to let that sink in because I think you'll agree, it's a pretty creative interpretation of the situation. Let me say it again: the insurance companies claim the disaster is the fault of illegal music downloading.

Here's why. Millions of people around the world download music, typically without paying for it. That, naturally, has led to a dramatic fall-off in CD sales, forcing musical acts to rely much more on live performances to make their money. That means bigger festivals packed with more artists, attracting more people than ever before. And that means that when something does go wrong, as happened last month, the consequences are far more severe than they would have been a few years ago, when people were safely at home listening to their CDs.

It kind of makes sense if you look at it... well, no, who am I kidding, it makes no sense at all. It's possibly the most bizarre bit of twisted logic I've ever run into; in fact, I manually entered the text of this Google translate [http://twitpic.com/6l5ap2] just to make sure it's not some sort of Onion-flavored irony. It is not. It is just sheer, unbridled ignorance and ridiculous spin. Hard to believe, but sadly true.

via: Boingboing [http://boingboing.net/2011/09/16/insurer-music-festival-tragedy-caused-by-illegal-downloading.html]


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[-Samurai-]

That's probably one of the stupidest things I've ever heard.

Even if there was some slight chance of that being even remotely true, it doesn't apply to this situation, as the concert is annual. Meaning it isn't something they decided to have to make up for their "lost sales" from piracy. The concert was going to happen anyway.

 

[Enrathi]

Wow, next thing you know, the current world financial situation will be blamed on video game piracy. Why not? Everything else is blamed on games.

 

[Rylot]

So I'm assuming if it's ruled a fault of illegal file sharing the insurance company doesn't have to pay? They should have to pay double for contempt of court and contempt of logic.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Okay, for starters, let's get the distribution company bullshit out of the way. Artists very VERY rarely make any money off of CD sales. Live shows and performances are HOW they make most of their money. Downloading music illegally doesn't hurt the artists all that much, but it certainly hurts the exploitative fucks who take advantage of them.

 

[Art Axiv]

Makes a ton sense if you think of it.. both of those things are totally related.
True story.

 

[AngryMongoose]

Okay, but where do the Bowling Ball and the Trampoline come into it?

 

[NewClassic_v1legacy]

You know, at first, I thought this idea was perhaps the dumbest thing. The idea that modern piracy and music theft contributing to the appearance of concerts seemed a little far-fetched. I mean, the idea that people didn't like concerts until after the modernization of music piracy didn't seem too terribly sound to me.

Then I did some research, and found out the most-populated concert of all time was a Rod Stewart concert in 1994, at Copacabana Beach. I figured that would be a pretty laughable number, but it was actually estimated to be about 3.5 million persons in attendance there to listen.

Conversely, the major modernization of music piracy occurred in '99 with the publication of Napster, and later BitTorrent in July of 2001.

So yeah, the logic holds pretty well. I'm impressed with the insurance company's foresight and clarity in their argument.

...Wait.

 

[Regiment]

I like it. I think we should start applying butterfly effect logic to everyday situations.

"It's not my fault I'm late to work. In 1875, a man named John Farmer planted an apple tree on his property. When his great-grandson Edward cut the tree down, my uncle planted an oak tree that shades my bedroom, making it very easy for me to sleep in. Blame John, not me."

 

[mariofan1000]

What.

I know that's not a lot...but...just...what...

 

[Zerbye]

It makes perfect sense. These bands have too many fans because of illegal music downloading. Too many fans show up, and...wait a second, did they just blame the weather on fan turnout?

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

The world makes perfect sense now. Thank you for helping me see the light.

 

[Jegsimmons]

doesn't this make you wish god would just....KILL EVERYONE so no one no where can ever have a stupid comment ever again.

 

[Evilsanta]

Of course! It all makes sense now! I guess we also can blame the dinosaurs dying out on illegal file sharing too. Which of course means that illegal downloading also caused the death of Jesus! And is the major cause for all major natural disasters!

Thanks you insurance compananies for enlighting me on this...[Sarcasm off]


OT: Just...This is just so stupid. I mean...Come on! Ugh, I can't handle this much stupid.

 

[Kapol]

It makes sense in some sort of backwards bizzaro-world where up is down and the left is right (joke). While they may or may not be correct that the damages would have been less to some degree if there was no piracy (which is unlikely), it's stupid to say that the damage itself was caused by that.

 

[Maeta]

Maybe if the stage was funded by the CD sales? Or maybe, since the piraters obviously 'don't care' about the bands and the music, or whatever, then they just didn't give a flying one about safety? Or did piracy anger the gods of screws and nails?

 

[Outlaw Torn]

It sort of makes sense, if artists demanded more money for their performances and the organisers only had the same amount of money they might have to cut back on the quantity/quality of the guys setting up the stage. Leading to a greater chance of someone getting splattered by a roadie. That is, if health and safety inspectors are also affected by music pirates. I'd hazard a guess that the problem here was having a festival, which coincided with a storm, which didn't like things being in its way, which subsequently got moved and under which people found themselves.

On a related note, I have a theory that file sharing sites have a direct link to the amount of rain at Glastonbury. I'll be submitting my findings to Nature next week.

 

[McMullen]

Hey! This could be a fun game. I got one:

The increase in the incidence of cancer is the result of modern medicine. More people are getting cancer because they're not dying young of something else first. So, I blame cancer on modern medicine.

I can haz insurance job?