In an insightful article at BBC, Mark Ward describes the true threat to the music industry: street piracy. According to the article:
[t]he pirate CD market is now so big, $4.6bn, it is “of greater value than the legitimate music market of every country in the world, except the USA and Japan”.
Ken from Ars Technica correctly notes that the true definition of a pirate is one who steals for personal gain. And gain these pirates do, especially in comparison to those hapless individuals the RIAA continues to target in its subpoena scaremongering. Street music piracy continues – unimpeded and on unparalleled scale – while teenagers and university students continue to bear the brunt of enforcement efforts which seek to curtail infringing online file-sharing.
The methods of evidence gathering in such proceedings have been criticised, and it is open to doubt whether online piracy is having a material effect upon legitimate music sales as the RIAA claims.
Despite this, however, the list grows ever larger. Is your name there?
