The IFPI, a trade body of the music industry, has released a
report stating that unauthorised downloading of copyright
recordings from the internet has cost copyright owners $4.2 billion
in lost sales.
The report says that music on-line is almost wholly a pirate
medium. The IFPI closed down 15,000 web sites last year that
contained 300,000 music files. The chairman of the IFPI, Jay Berman
told FT.com, “it is difficult to make an assessment of either the
value or the cost to us except to say that virtually all of the
billions of downloads that occurred in 2000 were illegal.”
The IFPI believes that new legitimate on-line music services and
any successful court cases against pirate music providers will help
stop the criminal activities. Napster has seen a fall in downloads
from 2.8 billion in February to 400,000 due to its high profile
court appearances.
The IFPI has called for national governments to modernise laws
concerning on-line piracy. In the EU, member states currently have
18 months to comply with a copyright directive that was adopted in
April. This sets out grounds for pursuing internet pirates.
