The music industry yesterday cautiously welcomed a drop in the number of people illicitly swapping music files over the internet, weeks after users were threatened with legal action in the US.
The online audience measuring service, Nielsen NetRatings, said traffic on the leading file-sharing platform, Kazaa, fell by 15% in the week ended July 6th, compared with the previous week. Traffic on the Morpheus site was also 15% down, while iMesh dropped by 16%.
The Recording Industry Association of America announced at the end of last month that it would step up its campaign against online piracy by threatening to pursue people offering music files for downloading. The industry group intends to sue potentially thousands of users for up to $150 000 per copyright violation. The first suits will be filed in the coming weeks.
Greg Bloom, a senior NetRatings analyst, said: ”With the negative publicity and threat of steep fines, some surfers appear to be backing off. However, with millions of loyal users, these applications aren’t likely to go offline in the near future.”
A spokesperson for the RIAA also added a note of wariness. ”In our view, the ultimate measurement is not the day to day traffic on peer to peer sites, but rather the long-term growth and success of the legitimate online music marketplace. That’s what this enforcement is all about.”
The recording business has been devastated by online piracy. The music industry worldwide has shrunk from a $40-billion business in 2000 to a $26-billion industry in 2002.
The affect is most stark in top-selling albums. In 2000, the 10 top-selling albums in the US sold a total of 60-million copies. A year later that was down to 40-millon. In 2002 they sold just 34-million. – Guardian Unlimited Â