Techdirt responds to Allen apology

A technology news website has responded to an apology from Lily Allen after she was accused of "copying" an article on her anti-piracy blog.

In a new Techdirt post, Michael Masnick argued that Allen was among a number of people who had misunderstood his comments to TorrentFreak regarding the use of his piece on her website.

Masnick said: "While I appreciate the 'apology', that's really missing the point. First, the reason TorrentFreak and I both brought it up wasn't because I was upset about her using the post.

"As I clearly said in my response, I thought it was great that she wanted to use our post, and I encouraged her to do so."

He added: "The point, though, was that it was a bit hypocritical of her to be going on and on about how evil it is to copy another's work without their permission, when she went and did the same thing.

"Furthermore, the point is that when it's natural and easy for people to copy like that, it's time to learn to accept it and use it to your advantage. So, no apology is necessary to me.

"My post wasn't about you trying to pass off my words as your own, but recognising that even you, Lily Allen copy other people's work all the time, even without realising it."

Allen has continued to feature comment from artists on her blog including Glasvegas, The Futureheads, Alesha Dixon, Stephen Street and Mark Ronson.