On the Download
Def Leppard frontman wants file sharers to change their spots
Kari D.

If you were able to pick someone to break into your house, you'd be hard pressed to find someone with as much conviction for his work as Joe Elliott. And to what would you owe the privilege of having your stuff lifted by the brooding Def Leppard frontman? Remember that MP3 of "Pour Some Sugar on Me" that you downloaded two months ago?

"How annoying is it that more people downloaded our new album than bought it?" Elliott sounds exasperated, calling in from a stop on the band's current North American tour in support of their ninth studio album, X.

"Even your own record label sits around saying, "Well, y'know, we're still making a profit so we don't really care." It's killing music, they're stealing our art. [The label] should do something about it because if we actually decided to put a record out on another label, which is exactly the same thing, [they'd] try to sue us."

Was that a threat? Could Def Leppard be one lump or two away from a breach of contract with home base Mercury Records? Probably not, but Elliott knows better than to depend on the suits for help; he'd rather rely on the guilty conscience of the everyday man.

"People know instinctively that if they walked into a grocery shop to get their weekly fix of food and didn't pay, they'd get arrested," he says. "How on earth do they think they've got the nerve to take music without paying for it, their weekly fix of songs? They do because they think no one's watching. Sooner or later we will have the technology to catch people, and they should be rightfully told to pay, or give it back or be prosecuted."

Elliott believes the online music depots popping up on the Internet that allow users to download high quality MP3s complete with album artwork (such as iShop for Mac users and buymusic.com) will deter those looking to get songs for free.

"I think, given the opportunity to pay for it, eventually people will feel that they should. It's theft, and it's as much a theft as me walking into somebody's house and taking their stereo that they play their MP3s through. It's exactly the same."

The argument that Elliott is part of a multimillion-dollar-selling operation doesn't fly with him, either.

"Music might be made by an artist that's got more money in the bank than somebody that's living in a bedsit. You download his music and he doesn't make anything off of that music. Chances are the little ones are making more money than the big ones! Everybody should be entitled payment for their work. I'm sorry, but if Madonna sells more records than Tom Waits, she should be paid more. That's the way it works."

As an artist, Elliott recognizes his limited ability to control the business of MP3 downloads. Instead he is relegated to addressing the public with a heartfelt plea: "You shouldn't do it. If you're a fan of the band, of anyone you would take music from, you owe it to them to pay for their art. You should respect them in the same way you respect people not to break into your house."

Def Leppard plays the Winnipeg Arena on Wednesday, Sept. 10. Tickets are $45 plus fees at Select-A-Seat, 780-SEAT.