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UK Campaign for Digital Rights debunks the digital piracy myth
For Immediate Release
7 March 2003
Press Contact: Julian Midgley <jtjm@ukcdr.org>,
Phone: +44 (0)7713 166000
UK CAMPAIGN FOR DIGITAL RIGHTS DEBUNKS THE DIGITAL PIRACY MYTH
Recently record industry lobby groups such as the British Phonographic
Industry, the Recording Industry Association of America and the
International Federation of Phonographic Industries have claimed that
the current decline in sales of CD albums can be blamed on the use of
file-sharing "piracy" services by members of the public. This supposed
connection has been used to justify lobbying for oppressive new
copyright measures such as the European Copyright Directive
2001/29/EC, and their arguments have been repeated by the news media
on a number of occasions.
In fact, there is no evidence for a connection between the use of
file-sharing services and the fall in CD sales, as the BPI's most
recent figures themselves show. The industry's own figures actually
paint a picture which, given their own recent statements, is rather
surprising:
According to their statistics, UK sales of CD albums actually
increased by almost 7%, from 1.05 billion in 2000 to 1.12 billion in
2001, despite a quoted increase of 34% in UK commercial pirate sales,
from 20.50 million to 27.55 million. (Source: BPI Piracy Report, June
2002.)
The BPI is unable to provide any figures for revenue it claims was
lost because of internet file-sharing during this period, but the
claim that internet file-sharing resulted in significant loss of
revenue means that, with no illegal downloads, CD album sales would
have increased by much more than the 7% actually recorded.
This is wishful thinking on the part of the lobbyists. The last time
that album sales grew this fast was in 1997/8, when there was an 8.5%
increase, but that was at a time of much higher growth in the UK
economy, and there is no reason to expect very high growth in CD sales
during the current downturn. (GDP growth was 2.9% in 1997/8 against
1.9% in 2000/1; source: Office of National Statistics; sales
statistics from BPI Trade Deliveries surveys.)
In addition to the poorer economic climate, the number of albums being
released worldwide by the record industry has fallen in recent years,
by almost 20% between 1999 and 2001 (source: Recording Industry
Association of America). It is hardly surprising that sales growth has
slowed just as issues of new recordings have declined.
In fact, there is considerable evidence to suggest that on-line
file-sharing has contributed to the growth in CD sales described by
the BPI's own figures. As the RIAA's then president Hilary Rosen
discovered when she surveyed members of the Oxford Union in October
2002, the majority of file-sharing users bought more CDs even after
downloading tracks. And according to surveys in the US in 2000,
between one-third and two-thirds of file-sharing users were more
likely to buy CDs after listening to tracks downloaded from the
internet (sources: Yankelovich Partners, Jupiter Research, Wall Street
Journal).
"We don't condone illicit sharing of music on the internet," says the
CDR's Julian Midgley, "but it is probably doing the record industry a
power of good, by increasing record sales, not hurting them. Their own
figures certainly don't support the propaganda that they're spreading
about the need for new copyright laws and a crackdown on internet
users. The record industry needs to stop treating its customers like
criminals and embrace new technology. They should stop crying wolf
about file-sharing and offer the public a convenient, legal way to
download tracks at a reasonable price. Nobody is fooled by all this
talk of theft and piracy."
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REFERENCES:
BPI trade deliveries reports: http://www.bpi.co.uk/stats/td2002Q4.html
BPI 2000/1 piracy report:
http://www.bpi.co.uk/piracy/piracyreport.html
UK GDP figures:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/tsdataset.asp?vlnk=215&More=N&All=Y
RIAA figures on new releases quoted in:
http://www.azoz.com/music/features/0008.html,
http://www.azoz.com/news/0023.html
Various "Napster increases CD sales" reports referenced in:
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/424411,
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/perl/story/3837.html,
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-11-521547.html,
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,36961,00.html
Jupiter research at: http://www.jup.com/ (registration required)
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The Campaign for Digital Rights is a non-political organisation which
campaigns for fair and balanced laws for the information society. We
fight for freedom of speech online, positive fair use rights for
copyrighted material and for consumer rights in the digital age. For
more information, please contact us or see our website,
http://ukcdr.org/.
This press release is also available from:
http://ukcdr.org/files/press-releases/20030307_debunking_the_piracy_myth.txt
--
Julian T. J. Midgley http://www.xenoclast.org/
Cambridge, England.
PGP: BCC7863F FP: 52D9 1750 5721 7E58 C9E1 A7D5 3027 2F2E BCC7 863F
_______________________________________________
CDR-press-contacts mailing list
CDR-press-contacts@ukcdr.org
http://mailman.xenoclast.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/cdr-press-contacts
(Log in to post comments)
UK Campaign for Digital Rights debunks the digital piracy myth Posted Mar 10, 2003 8:59 UTC (Mon) by beejaybee (guest, #1581) [Link] Good article. However it ignores what I think is another important reason for falling CD sales: just about everyone who was going to buy CDs to replace old vinyl records has now done so, so that market is dead, or at least dying fast.I do wonder about "debunking the myth" _again_. We consumers were convinced long ago, and don't need yet another article of this type. Meanwhile the record companies are absolutely determined not to believe the truth - their colours are nailed to the mast and their captain is on the bridge, standing smartly to attention, whilst the waters rush into their sinking ship. Serves them right.
UK Campaign for Digital Rights debunks the digital piracy myth Posted Mar 13, 2003 11:33 UTC (Thu) by ekj (subscriber, #1524) [Link] It also ignores another very real issue: People who are being demonized and treated as thieves by the music bussiness are not very likely to be positive to the same bussiness.I don't know about you, but personally I have a lot of negative feelings towards the music bussiness. Enough so that I choose to spend my entertainment-cash elsewhere. Enough so that I currently consider it ethically questionable to give money to the immoral cartel of big music companies. I prefer that my money are not used to figth to diminish my fair-use rigths, the "first sale" rigths and my rigth to listen to music I own how and where I want. Music is entertainment. Personally, I'm not much entertained any more.
We must keep debunking because they keep lying Posted Mar 14, 2003 6:16 UTC (Fri) by bignose (subscriber, #40) [Link] I do wonder about "debunking the myth" _again_. We consumers were convinced long ago, and don't need yet another article of this type. Meanwhile the record companies are absolutely determined not to believe the truth This is exactly why the myth of "piracy" needs to be debunked, over and over again -- the media companies keep selling the myth over and over. They will never stop selling it until it (and perhaps they) are completely defeated, so we will ever have to expose its falsehood. The culture hoarders have incredible resources to devote to the unrelenting struggle against the future; they have the megawatt bullhorns, and can employ as many people as they like to shouting the piracy myth through those bullhorns twenty-four seven. Against that, we must do more than debunk the myth once; we must do it a ridiculous amount of times, to a ridiculous amount of people. You, as an individual, have been convinced the myth is bogus and that you are not a "pirate" for sharing valuable culture with your neighbour. It is not my experience that any significant proportion of the public feel the same way; most *believe* they are committing some kind of offense against the media giants, and that it *is* wrong to do so. That they do it anyway is done with a large degree of guilt, and it is *that* which we must fight; while the media giants are seen to be right, the public will not righteously oppose them.
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