Robbie Williams plugs file-sharing website on 'The Voice' final

After Robbie Williams appeared on the live final of BBC show The Voice wearing a jacket embroidered with “Megaupload”, a spokesperson from the singer’s management company said that the item of clothing “doesn’t imply support” of Kim Dotcom, the internet entrepreneur charged with copyright infringement, money laundering and racketeering.

Tim Clark, of Williams’ representatives ie:music, told Music Week: “Wearing an item of clothing with a logo on it doesn’t imply support. I have a Guinness t-shirt and never drink the stuff.” Kim Dotcom, founder of the sharing site shut down last year, is currently fighting extradition to the U.S. where, if found guilty of the charges levelled against him, he could face up to 50 years in jail.

Williams had been performing alongside Dizzee Rascal on Saturday night’s broadcast of The Voice from Wembley Arena. He and the grime artist took to the stage in mobility scooters to perform “Goin Crazy,” set to feature on the latter’s upcoming album The Fifth.

If there was indeed intent in the statement, then Williams joins a strong but often more opaque tradition of sartorial protests. He has form; as early as 2009, the former “fat dancer from Take That” was part of the Featured Artists Coalition that “voted against supporting any move towards criminally prosecuting ordinary members of the public for illegally downloaded music.”

Watch a clip of the performance below: