p2pnet news | Music:- The sneakernet may be far more dangerous to the corporate music industry than online file sharing, says a new study.

The heretical conclusion comes in the intriguingly entitled, Confusing The Captain With The Cabin Boy: The Dangers Posed To Reform Of Cyber Piracy Regulation By The Misrepresented Interface Between Society, Policy Makers & The Entertainment Industries.

The British Music Rights organisation, headed up by Feargal Sharkey, ex-lead vocalist for pop punk band The Undertones, commissioned the report from the University of Hertfordshire to find out what Brits aged between 16 and 24 actually think about music and copyright and what their attitudes are towards the music industry.

The conclusion? A, “one-sided battle lies ahead” with three outcomes likely to occur, says its author, Michael Filby. >>>

[...] the limitation of the digital revolution in favour of increasing IP restrictions to maintain the illusion that technological innovation is occurring;

the acceptance by the industries that the evolution cannot be stemmed by the tide of the law137, to which the industries would have to adapt as they did after the Amstrad138 and Betamax139 rulings, as opposed to hiding behind the skirt of the law;

or, unfortunately the most likely, an uncomfortable and ongoing battle between the law and cyberspace which will undoubtedly, after the passing of much time, litigation and expense, eventually result in the industries recognising the new opportunities for e-commerce, and resultingly adapting themselves to meet consumer demand and behaviour.

The first would be a stamp on the head of innovation, the second an embracement but the third, “is an almost inevitable messy compromise between the two which is likely to cast a misfocussed light over the regulation of cyber piracy and, consequently, intellectual property law as a whole, for many years to come,” Filby states.

The BMR describes itself as an, “umbrella organisation whose four members (British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, Mechanical-Copyright Protection Society, Music Publishers Association, and Performing Right Society) collectively represent more than 50,000 British music creators and publishers in the UK”

“Tapping into our partner’s resources, we believe this will be the largest and most far-reaching survey of its kind – providing desperately needed data as to what this much-quoted demographic actually think about music and copyright and what their attitudes are towards the music industry,” it says.

And as Sharkey correctly points out in an interview with the Guardian, the corporate music industry [read Warner Music, EMI, Vivendi Universal and Sony BMG] anti-piracy efforts have, “largely focused on illegal online music swapping – with estimates suggesting only one in 20 digital downloads is paid for”.

But, he says, the online problem is potentially dwarfed by “offline copying” [read sneakernet] with the research suggesting for 18-24-year-olds, “home copying remains more popular than file sharing”. “Overall, 95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying, including taking the music contents of a friend’s hard drive – 58% – and the more old-fashioned method of recording from the radio,” says the Guardian.

“For somebody who has spent 30 years in the music industry, you instinctively know this stuff is going on,” says Sharkey in the story.

“But when you actually sit looking at your computer and see a number that says 95% of people are copying music at home, you suddenly go, ‘Bloody hell’,” he said.

The BMR research echoes other studies, “signalling that knowing something is illegal is no longer a deterrent,” says the Guardian.

In truth, the only people who’ve ever thought that, will try to pass it across as fact, are the online media and those working in the corporate music industry

The aspect of home copying which most worries the BMR, “is the speed with which friends can now swap music, whether from one hard drive to another or on to MP3 players,” says the story, going on >>>

Almost half the music in the average MP3 player collection comprises tracks that have not been paid for, the report says. People aged 18-24 keep around £750-worth of unpaid-for music on their MP3 players.

The music industry says it accepts consumers should not be punished for shifting music from one format to another, but some are concerned an exception will increase the perception music can be freely copied with impunity.

BMR has “no problem in principle” with the concept of changing the law,” says the Guardian, but, “Sharkey is urging the government to look to European law, which dictates that where a private copying-style exception is created there is also some sort of compensation for the creators and performers.

Whatever the outcome, the prevalence of offline and online music copying shows the music industry has, “a lot of big challenges it needs to face up to very quickly,” admits Sharkey.

(Thanks, Dave)

Slashdot it!

Guardian – Home copying – burnt into teenage psyche, April 7, 2008

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 11:19 am and is filed under Music, P2P. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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