Lily Allen started an anti-piracy crusade against illegal filesharing with her blog, “It’s Not Alright“, last month. She garnered a following of like-minded musicians, yet was still forced to shut down her blog.

Lily hung herself with her own rope after plagiarizing a TechDirt article word for word, then claiming that she closed her blog for “abuse.”

In the face of that controversy, both Shakira and Nelly Furtado are stepping up to say that they don’t care if people want to steal their music.

Shakira said, “‘I like what’s going on because I feel closer to the fans and the people who appreciate the music. It’s the democratization of music in a way. And music is a gift. That’s what it should be, a gift.”

Nelly Furtado concurs, saying that artists shouldn’t worry about the financial aspects of the music industry and try to focus on their love of the music they make.

She added, “If you love music, you’re going to make it anyway. You’ll find an audience, and you may not make like millions of dollars, but you’ll make enough to have a house and a family and a car. I don’t know though, maybe the clock is ticking.”

Don’t make Lily angry, you wouldn’t like her when she’s angry.

source: Shakira hits back at Lily Allen in illegal downloading row as she claims file-sharing ‘brings me closer to fans’ – [daily mail]