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File-sharing on the up, shocker
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 21 December 2009
Record label trade body the BPI last week published research that showed that illegal file-sharing in the UK is on the rise, despite the growth of legitimate digital music services in the last 18 months, including platforms like Spotify which offers a large catalogue of music on demand at no cost to the consumer.
Although the levels of file-sharing over P2P networks was pretty static in 2009, other kinds of file-sharing – and in particular the download of MP3s from dodgy unlicensed websites – is on the rise. I don’t know whether the BPI tracked the rise of file-sharing by email and hard-disc swaps, but I suspect they’re on the up too.
I’m not sure any of this is news, particularly, but presumably the BPI are issuing the stats to put further pressure on political types to back the three-strikes proposals currently working their way through parliament, which propose suspending the net access of persistent file-sharers. While such measures wouldn’t stop serial file-sharers, who have the savvy to mask their file-sharing from the piracy police, a few high profile disconnections might prove a deterrent to more casual MP3 thieves.
Commenting on the research, BPI supremo Geoff Taylor told reporters: “There are now more than thirty-five legal digital music services in the UK, offering music fans a great choice of ways to get music legally. It’s disappointing that levels of illegal P2P use remain high despite this and the publicity surrounding imminent measures to address the problem. It’s vital that those measures come into force as quickly as possible”.
As previously reported, there has been a lot of vocal opposition to the three-strikes proposals, some of it from within the wider music industry, with some music business types seeing the ongoing file-sharing battle as a pointless distraction for record companies who should instead be investing time into forming partnerships with many more than the 35 licenced music services Taylor references. Indie label owner and music lawyer Anthony Hall recently resigned his post on the BPI’s rights committee in protest at the trade body’s support for the more draconian anti-piracy laws – more on that here.
