Music Piracy Still Swashbuckling

Just when it seemed like the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) goons had weeded out most avenues for the illegal downloading of music, a recent British survey has revealed that it's still fairly easy for a user to acquire black market tunes.

The report, compiled by London, England based Entertainment Media Research (EMR), is a stinging slam against the current format of most legal downloading sites. EMR finds that, for a number of critical reasons, the CD platform is not being effectively eclipsed by legal digital music distribution. (Source: iafrica.com)

The main problem? Legal downloading sites, such as iTunes, simply aren't "out there". Although pages like Facebook and MySpace are raising awareness, most web users simply don't find it easy enough to pay for their digital music packages.

As a result, the great enemy of sites like iTunes, illegal music downloading protocols and Torrents, are growing in popularity. In a recent poll performed by EMR of 1,700 UK residents, evidence suggests illegal activity in this realm is higher than ever before. In total, some 43 per cent of those responding admitting to illegally downloading music, up from 40 per cent in 2005 and 36 per cent in 2006. In addition, the threat of prosecution is no longer scaring away downloaders; just 33 per cent admitted it was a scary thought, while in 2006 some 42 per cent felt the fear of law. (Source: theglobeandmail.com)

The problem isn't likely to end, either. More respondents than ever told EMR that they plan on continuing to download music illegally.

Despite the parade of prosecution brought by the RIAA, EMR executive director Russell Hart believes the solution to piracy has been available to the music industry all along. Hart believes it's up to record labels to simply craft a better product, and to make legal music downloads the easiest of online options.

Other avenues are more encouraging. Those participating in EMR's poll said they'd be interested in paying for live webcasts by popular artists, a visual/audio marriage that could prove successful as more and more users acquire high speed Internet connections.