TorrentFreak

To back up their demands for tougher anti-piracy laws, the music industry often promotes statistics that show how drastically sales improve when they have their way. This week the music industry did this again by claiming that the French three-strikes law has been highly effective and has boosted iTunes sales tremendously. But is this really the case? Or have the media and lawmakers been fooled again by the copyright lobby?

The IFPI has told Google it must try harder with its copyright enforcement activities. In its patronizing teacher/student style “Report Card”, the music industry group says the search giant profits from digital piracy, puts up barriers to make life difficult for rightsholders, engages in destructive rhetoric and raises alarmist, self-serving criticism to any legislative proposal designed to thwart infringement.

According to an announcement by IFPI, online payment provider PayPal has agreed to help strangle the finances of sites offering unauthorized music. While it appears that the initial targets are Russian and Ukrainian MP3 services, the deal will also be of concern to torrent sites that rely on PayPal to accept site donations.

The IFPI in Switzerland are currently battling through a crisis, one which has brought them unwanted scrutiny from tax authorities. Allegations of tax fraud were levelled at the music group when it was revealed that a connected company obtained a tax reduction of more than 316,000 euros after IFPI supplied two employees. In the wake of the claims, the CEO of IFPI Switzerland has resigned.

The Swiss branch of the largest music industry trade group IFPI is under investigation for anti-competitive practices. The Swiss Competition Commission (Wettbewerbskommission) is looking into the IFPI and its members, mostly prominent record labels. A preliminary investigation started on 24 March 2011 and has revealed that IFPI Switzerland and its members hinder parallel CD imports. [...]

When trying to obtain elusive evidence to help formulate a legal strategy, most organizations tend to go through the court system. IFPI, the international music industry group, has just done it rather differently. When they needed a torrent site’s data recently they just called up their host, implied they might sue and then simply picked up the hard drives. Case in point, the Internet’s 10th biggest torrent site, LimeTorrents.

Over the years many pro-copyright groups have lobbied extensively for harsher anti-piracy legislation. In Europe, this task may now become a little easier, as a former music industry lobbyist has been appointed as the head of a unit that deals with copyright and enforcement issues at the European Commission. Among other things, the former IFPI employee will be tasked with pushing through the ACTA trade agreement.