Domestic Pirates: Beat Them At Their Own Game

According to Gliddon ‘big music companies are losing vast amounts of money through piracy’. This is supported by the fact that the pirate music industry is valued at US$4.3 billion (ARIA). While this figure incorporates all forms of music piracy, online piracy is stilled claimed to be a significant contributor - the Recording Industry Association of America claim that internet piracy was one of the key factors responsible for the 5% drop in retail music sales in both 2000 and 2001 (Dignan). The claim is illustrated by the fact that retail music sales peaked in 1999 and then declined with the introduction of the first so-called peer-to-peer downloading service, Napster. The Yankee Group pr

With revenues being lost daily, major labels and representative groups have begun to take action. Lawsuits are currently pending against the major P2P applications which are still operational, and their developers.

edicts these figures will grow, expecting 7.44 billion unlicensed audio files to be traded in 2005 before declining.

Other actions being taken against online piracy include the efforts of a British company, Netsertion. Netsertion have developed ‘fingerprint’ technology, which enables each digital file to be uniquely identifiable (Matthews, 2001, p.23). The technology could be implemented to track illegal audio files and report any such instances to their rightful copyright holder.

Some topics in this essay:
Buskrik Software, Steel KPMG, Napster Yankee, Netsertion Netsertion, Association America, P2P Napster, Public Knowledge, Yankee GroupThe, According Gliddon, US$43 ARIA, online piracy, audio files, music industry, p2p applications, unlicensed audio files, unlicensed audio, decentralised p2p, van buskrik, record companies, industry heavyweights, music sales, retail music sales, music industry heavyweights,