Since the first lawsuits were filed against those who illegally share music over file sharing networks, around 20,000 lawsuits have been filed against suspect users across 17 countries. With the continuous rounds of lawsuits being filed non-stop, the IFPI mentions that while global file sharing levels have remained about the same over the past two years, it is being contained. As the number of broadband subscribers is soaring, but not the level of file sharing, the IFPI chairman John Kennedy mentioned that the music industry is winning the war.
He
mentions that the main problem the music industry faces now is that they need to find a way to get existing P2P users who are stuck in the habit to switch to legal alternatives. One way is to increase the number of lawsuits being filed. At the moment, the music industry is also considering whether to sue the ISPs themselves if they do not deal with its customers who break copyright law. Kennedy recons that if the ISPs would take action, file sharing piracy could dramatically drop in a very short space of time.
Over
2005, legal music services accounted for over $1 billion in music download
sales, of which digital music sales to mobile phones accounted
for about $400 million. When it comes to DRM, Kennedy backs the
continued use of DRM amd claims that it is being "misunderstood" by critics
and the UK National
Consumer Council who are fighting against it.
|
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said it was "containing" the problem and more people were connecting to broadband. The global music industry trade body said sales of legal downloads were worth more than $1bn (£570m) in 2005. IFPI chairman John Kennedy said the industry was "winning the war but we haven't won the war" against piracy. The fact that illegal song-swapping had not increased should be regarded as a success, he told the BBC News website. |
While DRM may be effective if put to proper use, such as implementing the non-restrictive Light Weight DRM that relies on watermarking and works with all existing equipment, the entertainment industry does not see any sort of copy protection worth while unless it physically enforces restrictions, requires (new) hardware that can comply with the restrictions and so on. Unfortunately, as each new software / hardware is developed to make DRM more effective, the worse the effect has been.
Originally, DRM was just an inconvenience. Now companies are developing its restrictive technology to the point where it is totally backfiring, such as Sony BMG's use of XCP. Despite all this, the entertainment industry still has no intention of giving up on restrictive DRM and who knows how far they will go with it before they realise that consumers are no longer buying their products and piracy is no longer the reason! This may also explain why more consumers are moving to other forms of entertainment, such as movies, games or even just listening to the radio.
Feel free to discuss about file sharing, its legal issues and alternatives on our Music Download, Peer to Peer (P2P) & Legal Issues forum.
Source: BBC News - Entertainment
