Anthrax's Scott Ian Says Take Away Illegal Downloaders' Internet Privileges

Scott Ian of legendary thrash band Anthrax has just recently given an interview to the browardpalmbeach.com blog. In the interview Scott touched upon many things including the return of Joey Belladonna and writing a tribute song for Ronnie Dio and Dimebag Darrell, but the topic that will most likely garner the most attention is his opinion of what the consquences for illegal downloading should be. Check the excerpt of the interview below:

"...It's the way it works these days. People can get the records for free, whether they're an actual fan or just a casual person who just wants to check something out. It's not a case of going out and checking out music. Now you can steal it, because the Internet makes that possible for people. People have this sense of entitlement now where they think music is free, and that's the way it is, whether or not they even realize they're stealing it.

Before the Internet, the only way to steal music was to walk into a music store and physically walk out with something, and you were stealing, and you knew it. You knew, unless you're a fucking maniac, that there was a consequence. If you got caught, you were going to get in trouble.

On the Internet, there is no consequence for stealing. Nobody gets in trouble for stealing music, nobody gets in trouble for stealing movies. Illegal downloading has no consequence. So until there is a consequence, it's going to happen more and more and more, and people are going to see less and less original and good content from the record industry and movie industry...

[In response to what he believes the consquences of illegal downloading should be]
You lose your Internet. That's it, no more Internet for you. Seriously! Like you drive drunk, you lose the privilege of driving. You download illegally, you lose the privilege of having the Internet. The punishment fits the crime. Why these service providers don't stop the torrent sites and put a consequence on this, I have no idea. Everybody complains about the trillions of dollars being lost, but nobody does anything about it. Believe me, if I could do something about it, I would."

So what do you guys think? He definitely gives a lot of good points but I doubt that he'll get any positive responses from the majority of downloaders, I definitely see no hope of him convincing anyone under the age of 25. Comment, discuss, and check the link below for the full interview. Anthrax's 10th studio album "Worship Music" is out now on Megaforce Records:

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