Singer/songwriter Billy Bragg has been a top spokesperson for the Featured Artists Coalition, a group of UK-based musicians that includes Radiohead, Kate Nash, Robbie Williams, David Gilmour, Travis, and many more. Though their main purpose is “the protection of performers’ and musicians’ rights,” the FAC has been very public of late in their defense of music pirates. What they want to avoid, you see, is a Lars Ulrich-esque debacle where fans get disgruntled for being persecuted over being too eager to get at their favorite band’s music.

In a column for the Guardian, Billy Bragg addressed the issue of whether internet service providers should be required by the government to cancel a suspected pirate’s service. Bragg says that the recording industry is trying to “get the ISPs to do their dirty work for them,” adding that the alleged criminals wouldn’t have “any recourse to appeal in the courts.”

Bragg goes on to say that this practice is “shameful” and likely ineffective. “Technology has so far stayed ahead of enforcement,” he added. “Any unauthorised filesharers who fear being caught out can simply encrypt their exchanges.”

The question over the efficacy of enforcing copyright law through ISPs could possibly be answered by paying close attention to France in the coming months. Just last week, the French government passed a controversial “three strikes” law, forcing ISPs to disconnect music pirates upon their third infraction.

If U.S. News & World Report ever decides to add copyright infringement to their university rankings criteria, M.I.T., Columbia, UPenn, and other top schools would probably still make the cut. The folks over at TorrentFreak have been meticulously analyzing a report that came out yesterday from BayTSP, an entertainment industry backed piracy watchdog, and some interesting charts are emerging.

M.I.T. has owned the competition in both 2007 and 2008 with 2,593 copyright infringement accusations last year. University of Washington grabbed the number two spot with 1,888 and Boston University, Columbia, and UPenn rounded out the top five with strong showings for both the past two years.

I suppose it isn’t surprising that a top tech school made the list, but I’m kind of surprised they weren’t better at not getting caught. Hear that, Caltech? For the full copyright infringement charts and TorrentFreak’s interesting analysis on how Purdue University possibly lowered their ranking by evading the piracy flashlight cops, click here.

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.

File sharing has become even more politicized, following the Pirate Bay verdict, in which the four founders were sentenced to a year in prison and £2.4 million in damages. This is bad news for the convicted, but France 24 reports the consequences are just peachy for Piratpartiet, a Swedish political party whose goal is “a free internet in an open society.” In fact, after the verdict was read, the party’s membership list swelled to over 38,000 names, making it the fourth-largest party in Sweden.

Piratpartiet’s candidate for the European Union elections, Christian Engström, explained the party’s goals to France 24: “Our goal is to win at least one seat in the European Parliament. To this end, we need to collect some 100,000 signatures.”

Engström hopes to represent the interests of European artists on the larger Brussels stage because, as he says, “The industry has had 10 years to adapt and revamp its economic model, but this hasn’t happened.”

For more on Sweden’s Piratpartiet, click here.

Paul McCartney isn’t quite as laissez-faire about illegal filesharing as he was last year. Speaking to BBC Newsbeat before his brilliant headlining set at Coachella, McCartney reacted to the conviction of the four founders of The Pirate Bay. “If you get on a bus you’ve got to pay,” he said. “And I think it’s fair, you should pay your ticket.”  His main concern with the issue is that newer bands sometimes have huge success that they can’t sustain and he feels they should be able to support their families on their royalties regardless of their future in music.

Only four months ago, however, McCartney seemed a little blissfully uninformed on the subject. “It’s weird for me,” he said at a press conference (via Skope). “I’m not from that.  I’m from going into a shop and buying a 45. We’ve come through vinyl, tapes and CDs – it’s all the same, except people don’t pay for it [now].  I don’t mind.  It works out.”

It’s nice to see that McCartney is humble enough to understand the plight of struggling bands, considering he’s been one of the biggest stars in the world for over forty years, but it’s clear we have yet to find a new working model for said bands. I think we may have a shortage of huge new rock stars for a while, but good music isn’t going anywhere.

Composer Andrew Lloyd Webber is freaking the eff out about the rise of illegal downloading on the internet, declaring that there will never be a Beatles again and moral relativism will conquer the Earth.

“The question that occurs to me is whether in 10 years time Britain would be a place that say The Beatles could have emerged from,” Webber said (via the Telegraph). “Will Britain be a fertile environment for all creative talent? Will Britain be a place where music, TV, film, games and publishing companies are sufficiently healthy to invest in British creative talent and take it to the rest of the world?”

“No. Not in a world where there are no longer shops where you can buy the physical products and the internet is a sort of Somalia of unregulated theft and piracy.”

See that? Your pirated version of Jesus Christ Superstar is causing starvation in Africa, says Andrew Lloyd Webber. Sort of.

He goes on to blame internet service providers for turning a blind eye to the “cataclysmic” situation, adding this choice bit, which probably knocks ‘em dead at Webber’s dinner parties: “Red wines in France are not content providers for the glass manufacturing business. Britain’s creative industries are not content providers for broadband.”

Webber should take a page out of Lars Ulrich’s book and schedule a sit-down with Trent Reznor.