The music industry should shift the focus of its battle with internet piracy towards the technological industries which have “built multibillion dollar industries on the back of our content without paying for it”, according to Paul McGuinness, manager of rock group U2.

Mr McGuinness, a highly-respected figure in the industry, told delegates to Midem, the music industry’s international trade show being staged in France, that they had concerned themselves for too long with the small fries who organised illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing on the internet.

Mr McGuinness, who has managed U2 for 30 years, said: “I suggest we shift the focus of moral pressure away from the individual P2P file thief and on to the multibillion dollar industries that benefit from these countless tiny crimes. The ISPs [internet service providers] the telcos [telecoms companies], the device-makers.”

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U2 frontman BONO has compared environmental campaigner AL GORE to an Irish priest to whom he can confess his ecological sins. The With Or Without You hitmaker shared the stage with the former U.S. vice president at a conference in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday (24Jan08) – Bono was there to promote his campaign to alleviate world poverty, while Gore was continuing his plea for the reduction of global carbon emissions. And the singer insists he can’t help feeling guilty about his lavish lifestyle when around Gore.

He says, “It’s like being with an Irish priest. You start to confess your sins. Father Al, I am not just a noise polluter, I am a noise-polluting, diesel-soaking, gulfstream-flying rock star. “I’m going to kick the habit. I’m trying father Al, but oil has been very good for me – those convoys of articulated lorries, petrochemical products, hair gel.”

Gore was one of the key figures behind 2007’s Live Earth concerts to raise awareness about climate change. He won an Oscar for his 2006 environment-focused documentary An Inconvenient Truth and he was also awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (07) for his dedication to green issues.

- ContactMusic

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) – Microsoft and Dell on Thursday joined U2 band front man Bono’s “RED” charity effort with a line of red personal computers.

Dell and Microsoft promise they will contribute a combined 50 to 80 dollars to The Global Fund to battle AIDS in Africa every time a “RED” computer is sold.

Eighty dollars can pay for someone with AIDS in Africa to have more than six months of life-sustaining antiretroviral medicine, according to RED.

“The computer has revolutionized our lives,” Bono said in a written release.

“It’s a truly beautiful idea that the purchase of a stylish PC can put someone on lifesaving ARV treatment for six months.”

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Associated Press

After a career playing to sold-out stadiums, U2 did what their fans have done for years _ stood in line to see U2 perform.

That concert was “U2 3D,” a film of the band’s 2005-06 Vertigo tour, shot at several shows in South America with new 3-D technology.

“I was really hoping we weren’t crap after all these years. Luckily we weren’t,” guitarist The Edge told The Associated Press before the band donned plastic glasses to watch the movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night.

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Proceeds Benefit African Cotton Farmers and Build Trade in Africa

ORLANDO, Fla., Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ — U2’s Bono is recognized as one of the world’s greatest performers and activists. Now, through edun LIVE’s partnership with Hard Rock, Bono is combining his love for music with his wife and EDUN co-founder Ali Hewson’s work toward sustained development in Africa. Hard Rock International is proud to launch its latest Signature Series, featuring an edun LIVE t-shirt, adorned with an image by Bono.

Hard Rock’s Bono Signature Series T-shirt combines EDUN’s Trade for Aid ethos and conscious consumerism with raising funds to benefit African cotton farmers, while creating jobs for African garment workers. Proceeds from the T- shirt sales will benefit Wildlife Conservation Society’s Conservation Cotton Initiative, which helps lift African farmers out of poverty by providing education on proper land management, organic cotton growing techniques and wildlife conservation.Since it was established in 1971, Hard Rock has been committed to a wide variety of philanthropic causes and activities around the world. In 1990, Hard Rock International developed the concept of partnering with world- renowned musicians and bands, who create and donate imaginative designs to be reproduced onto T-shirts to benefit the artist’s charity of choice. Bono is the 25th artist in Hard Rock’s Signature Series, and joins music icons and legends, including Sting, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Green Day, Ozzy Osbourne and Shakira, helping to raise millions of dollars for a number of charitable causes worldwide, such as Crossroads Centre Antigua, World Hunger Year, Amnesty International and more.

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