Ben Reid
13 Jun 2006 15:47
The CEO of The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) believes that the illegal swapping of copyrighted music online has been "contained," saying the legal digital downloads continues to expand while unorthorized music trading online has seen flat growth.
"The problem has not been eliminated," says RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. "But we believe digital downloads have emerged into a growing, thriving business, and file-trading is flat."
The Supreme Court Ruling back in June of last year ruled that P2P services could be held accountable for the activites of users. As a result, several P2P networks were closed including WinMX in September and Grokster last November.
Despite the closure of many P2P networks, the trading of music files online still remains popular. According to Internet analysis firm BigChampagne, 10 million users now swap files, which is an increase from 8.7 million last year. But the firm also added that the rapid rise in Internet piracy is now beginning to level off as a result of the music industry's continued enforcement and education programs. Additionally, the success of legit online music stores such as Apple's iTunes Music Store (which has sold over one billion tracks), has greatly assisted the rise of digital music, according to industry executives.
To date, the RIAA has sued over 18,000 filesharers, with 4,500 of them settling for fines of around $4,000 per case. While album sales are down 3% this year, Bainwol says digital sales, which are up 77%, make up for the shortfall.
Source:
USA Today