UK music industry takes tough action against downloaders

net1

The UK music industry has finally taken off its gloves in the US-led global battle against online piracy, threatening to sue UK citizens who illegally download copyrighted music from peer-to-peer services.

UK music industry executives have been reluctant to take the belligerent tone of their US counterparts, but following the first in-depth consumer survey into file-sharing they now believes they can prove that illegal downloading is doing great damage to the fortunes of the music industry and that action must be taken.

The research of 3,667 adults aged between 12 and 74 showed a significant difference between the buying behaviour of downloaders and non-downloaders. According to the survey, while non-downloaders' expenditure on music was flat, downloaders' spending on albums was down by 32%. Their spending on singles was down 59% over the previous year.

Up to 17.8% of those surveyed said they used download services, from which the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) extrapolates that as many 8m people in the UK are downloading music, and claims 92% of them are doing so illegally.

Peter Jamieson, CEO of the BPI, which represents up to 95% of UK record companies, said that the evidence was compelling.

'These finding are truly disturbing. No one should be in any doubt about the scale of the problem we're grappling with. No one can now question the need for us to take action.'

He added, 'These numbers nail the lie that somehow the record industry should be grateful for illegal downloading because of its supposed promotional value.'

In a strategy similar to the US, the UK industry has now unveiled an 'instant messaging' campaign over the Internet warning uploaders of music that they face court action if they don't disable file-sharing software on their computers.

The record companies are also particularly concerned that greater broadband access will worsen the problem. The survey, which was carried out by TNS, showed that the longer people downloaded from P2P services, such as Kazaa and Grokster, the more they download. Even more worrying was the fact that of those who currently don't download, 22% said they intend to start. The BPI believes this is equivalent to another 7.6m people starting to download.