The UK anti-piracy lobby (BPI) demanded immediate action against CD pirates. Piracy has increased because the punishments are too mild according to the BPI.
And the BPI doesn’t like being “mild” at all. Earlier this month the BPI banned 12 year old from the “school kids music chart because her record label refuses to sue music fans.
The BPI now demands action against CD pirates. 37 million pirated CDs were sold in the UK in 2005 says the BBC, quoting a recent survey by the research firm Ipsos.
Car boot sales and markets accounted for over a third of pirated CDs, while a quarter were bought from friends, the survey found.
On the other hand, 2006 has been the most succesful year in a decade for the UK music industry, thanks to the internet (despite of all the pirates online). And as we’ve seen before, the less popular artists actually profit form these “new” technologies.
New acts are selling more albums, more quickly, than ever before, according to the BPI. It attributes the success to a rise in the quality in new acts
It’s time for the BPI and its clients to acknowledge the power of the internet and filesharing. Embrace, and use these new technologies, instead of chasing pirates.
As Joel Waldfogel, a business and public policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania puts it:
They are alienating their customers with their traditional ways of distribution and the traditional outlets are dying.
