Neil Young on Piracy: ‘The laws don’t matter’

Neil Young has always found a way to buck the system in the music industry, so it’s no surprise that his views on music piracy lean towards the more anarchic side of the debate. In an interview with reporters at San Francisco’s JavaOne conference (via The Daily Swarm) Young told ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick that illegal file sharing is inevitable and it doesn’t concern him because the quality of mp3s makes them an inferior product. In fact, his “screw it” mentality towards piracy echoes Snow Patrol singer Gary Lightbody’s recent statement to pirates, when he said, “I say f**king go for it.”

Young noted that his forthcoming Blu-ray box set is meant to be a modern day gold standard for listening to his music, but “It’s up to the masses to distribute it however they want. The laws don’t matter at that point. People sharing music in their bedrooms is the new radio.”

For more on how Young feels listening to early digital music “was like being attacked with ice picks,” click here.