Creator shocked at China iTunes ban

Subject: Creator shocked at China iTunes ban Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:34 pm

The man behind the controversial pro-Dalai Lama music download which is being linked to the apparent blocking of Apple's online iTunes Store in China says it was never his intention to provoke such a response.

The album, Songs for Tibet, was offered as a free download to athletes attending the Olympic Games. They were encouraged to listen to the songs on their iPods whilst in Beijing as a act of solidarity with Tibetan people and the non-violent philosophies of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Up to 40 athletes are thought to have taken up the offer and Mike Wohl , the executive director of The Art of Peace Foundation which produced the album, says that it is understood that some of the downloads were made while the athletes were in Beijing.

But he insisted that the campaign to recruit Olympians was not intended to make a big political statement. "We were trying to do the subtlest of subtle things," he said in a telephone interview. "I didn't want to get anyone in trouble."

He also confirmed that pro-Tibet interest groups in Australian were contacted to help recruit supporters from among the ranks of Australian Olympians but was not able to say if any had taken up the offer.

The album features the work of well-known singers and songwriters including Sting, Moby, StephenSuzanne Vega and Alanis Morissette. Most of the songs are re-works or re-mixes; a few were written specifically for the project.

Wohl said that the Dalai Lama espouses a philosophy that links global peace with "our collective personal peace". The artists were asked to write or record songs which represented these aims.

He describes the album as a "vertical integration of this conncept of peace" and a celebration of the "philosphy of non-violence that the Dalai Lama champions".

China regards the Dalai Lama as a so-called "splittist" because of his oppostiion to China's rule in Tibet from where he fled into exile in 1959 after the Communists' "peaceful liberation" of his homeland.

"Our whole point is freedom of expression," Mr Wohl said. "We have no political agenda whatsoever."

Wohl also defended Apple, saying the company' was nothing more than "an innocent bystander in all this". In addition to the iTunes Store , the album is available as a paid download on about 100 website including Amazon and Wal-Mart, he said.

LNK

Creator shocked at China iTunes ban

Creator shocked at China iTunes ban

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