Sunday, January 25, 2009

Music Industry looses out on battle for illegal downloads

Eventually, the music industry has decided to embrace and accept illegal downloads of music from around the world. According to executives at the Midem conference in Cannes they have decided that illegal downloads of music is un-avoidable. Until very recently, the music industry was in a blind panic about illegal peer-to-peer downloading, they couldn’t stop it! And the industry still can’t! Millions of absolute millions of people from around the world seem to download music free of charge and it seems that the people who made it don’t seem to make a single penny.
An incredible 95% of all digital music in the music industry is downloaded straight off the internet and comes from un-licensed sources like Limewire and Imesh. However the blind panic regarding illegal downloaded music seems to have calmed down a lot. Regardless of how many hard hours he musician has put into playing his classic guitar or grand pianos. The Recording Industry Association of America, which represents US labels, has traditionally been the most aggressive and direct about chasing people who share music files over the world wide web. However, the association has announced that it will no longer sue suspected offenders at it considers the crime as far too broad and generic to prosecute one person.
Digital rights management – the lock placed on a track to attempt to stop people from sharing it was once the central tool to stop piracy from happening. However Apple is now removing DRM from their leading music software, itunes and the leading download store. This move from Apple marks almost a complete defeat for DRM and the music industry as they have been trying to battle music piracy for a very long period of time.
The music industry seems to of reached a dramtic conclusion regarding the sharing of music and it looks as though people have prevailed in the battle. Although, I do feel slightly sorry for the people who were caught out in this rather pointless war. After all, I’m sure we could all say that we have downloaded material off the net and not thought about the consequences.

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