Just read the bolded paragrpah and you will get the jist of it. Karms a bitch right?
IFPI Report Says 95 Percent Of Downloads Are Illegal
January 16, 2009
The International Federation For The Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has published its Digital Music Report 2009, and the organization says that 95 percent of global music downloads are pirated, even though the industry has transformed its business models and is offering consumers increasing choices in technology, music subscription services and other options. The digital music business internationally saw a sixth year of expansion in 2008, growing by an estimated 25 percent to $3.7 billion. Digital platforms now account for around 20 percent of recorded music sales, which is up from 15 percent in 2007. Single track downloads, up 24 percent in 2008 to 1.4 billion units globally, continue to drive the online market, says the IFPI, and digital albums are also growing with sales up 36 percent.
However, despite these developments, the music business is still overshadowed by the huge amount of pirated music distributed online, says the IFPI. Collating separate studies in 16 countries over a three-year period, IFPI estimates that over 40 billion files were illegally shared in 2008, bringing the piracy rate to around 95 percent.
"The recorded music industry is reinventing itself and its business models. Music companies have changed their whole approach to doing business, reshaped their operations and responded to the dramatic transformation in the way music is distributed and consumed," said IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy. "There is a momentous debate going on about the environment on which our business, and all the people working in it, depends. Governments are beginning to accept that, in the debate over 'free content' and engaging ISPs [Internet service providers] in protecting intellectual property rights, doing nothing is not an option if there is to be a future for commercial digital content."
In its report, the IFPI called for ISPs to help in the fight against online piracy. In 2008, governments in France and the U.K. lead the way in looking to ISPs to help bring file sharing under control. In France, a draft Creation and Internet Law sets up a system of "graduated response" by which ISPs will write to persistent copyright abusers to educate and warn them about their actions, as a last resort sanctioning them with loss of Internet access for between one and 12 months. Research suggests that system will be effective, as 72 percent of U.K. music consumers would stop illegally downloading if told to do so by their ISP and 74 percent of French consumers agree that Internet disconnection is a better approach than fines and criminal sanctions, says the IFPI. The momentum for ISP cooperation extends beyond France and the U.K., as New Zealand will start requiring ISPs to implement a policy of terminating the accounts of repeat infringers in February. Governments are also involved in discussions of the issue in the U.S., Italy, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea.
Article:
http://fmqb.com/Article.asp?id=1110238