music_news 91 posts

A survey by Entertainment Media Research revealed that illegal downloading has reached its highest level ever and the number of people concerned about being prosecuted is falling. (The Guardian).

Out of 1700 people who participated in the survey 43% claimed they’re illegally downloading tracks (last year it was 36%). Only 33% are concerned about the risk of prosecution compared to 42% in 2006.

The report suggests that price is the key factor for such situation and that the industry has to consider differential pricing.

The music industry association BPI replied that: “future success was not just down to new business models but also better protection against piracy, particularly from internet service providers.” "Industry cannot do it alone," said a spokesman. "ISPs as gatekeepers, and government as legislators, must also play an active role in tackling copyright theft if the UK is to thrive as a knowledge... read more

The U.S. Congress passed a bill last week which would tie government funding universities receive to how well they restrict file-sharing among students.

In short the amendment to the budged titled CAMPUS-BASED DIGITAL THEFT PREVENTION requires that 25 universities that receive the most of alleged infringement notices (most likely from the RIAA) have to provide evidence of having clear policies on downloading of copyrighted content and that student are aware of them; change their file-sharing policies if necessary; and implement “a technology-based deterrent” to prevent the P2P use among students – otherwise the university funding can be cut. (WIRED.COM)


Read more:
Congress Will Scrutinize Top 25 File Sharing Universities Each Year, WIRED.COM

Last week the U.S. Congress Committee on Oversight and Government Reform announced that it was considering new laws to “properly restrict” P2P networks. In their opinion P2P applications threaten national security, “intrude on personal privacy and violate copyright law”. The biggest concern is that federal employees may be “unknowingly sharing highly confidential information” making it available to terrorists.

The Committee staff did its own investigation and found that LimeWire P2P application exposed “personal bank records and tax forms, attorney-client communications, the corporate strategies of Fortune 500 companies, confidential corporate accounting documents, internal documents from political campaigns, government emergency response plans, and even military operation orders.”

According to the Committee statement the purpose of the legislative work “is not to shut down P2P networks or bash P2P technology… but to achieve a balance that protects sensitive government, personal, and corporate information and... read more

While falling CD sales is a fact, the reasons for the decline remain unclear. A recent study by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf published in the Journal of Political Economy contradicts the music industry srory that file sharing has had drastic effect on CD sales. Whereas organizations like RIAA and IFPI fail to explain how their alarming figures are calculated, the study explains in detail “whether file sharing has reduced the legal sales of music”.

The conclusion of the researchers is that it hasn’t. “Downloads have an effect on sales that is statistically indistinguishable from zero. Our estimates are inconsistent with claims that file sharing is the primary reason for the decline in music sales during our study period.”

This study entitled "The Effect of File Sharing on Record... read more

A court in Spain ruled this week that downloading music for free from the Internet is legal as long as it is done for private use. This happens for the first time in Europe.

The IFPI commented on the decision that "This is extremely unusual”. Later after a somewhat excited media coverage of the case the IFPI hastened to anoounce that “Swapping copyright-infringing music through peer-to-peer networks remains illegal in Spain as it is throughout Europe and virtually everywhere else”. Even the Spanish Justice Minister got involved with a clear statement “that file-sharing copyrighted music without permission is illegal.'

However, the judge made a point that if downloading music for private use was a criminal offence: "That would imply criminalising socially admitted and widely practised behaviour where the aim is not to gain wealth illegally but to obtain private copies".

This decision will be appealed by the IFPI.

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Despite thousands of lawsuits filed by IFPI against users of BitTorrent, eDonkey, DirectConnect, Gnutella, Limewire, etc. peering is thriving in Europe. Here are the numbers: “P2P traffic uses a share of 30% (daytime) and 70% (nighttime) of the overall Internet traffic in Germany. The absolute data volume has risen by 10% between June and October 2006. BitTorrent has surpassed eDonkey as the most popular file sharing network and causes more than half of all P2P traffic in Germany. Both networks generate over 95% of the P2P traffic and have nearly displaced previously popular networks such as Kazaa's FastTrack.” (from a survey by Ipoque). As to what is shared, for example, for BitTorrent the figures are: Music 22%, Video (movies) 21%, Video (porn) 15%.

More here:

New Ipoque Survey Confirms the Continuing Boom of P2P File... read more