95 percent of music downloads are illegal
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry — that's the RIAA for the rest of the world — says illegal music downloads outnumbered legal ones 20 to 1 in 2007. The music-industry association also expects CD sales, which dropped 11 percent between 2005 and 2006, to drop further in 2007. To the industry, this means we should all support measures like the one recently proposed by French President Nicholas Sarkozy.
Sarkozy said Internet service providers should automatically disconnect customers involved in piracy. (AT&T has privacy advocates all fired up after proposing a less-stringent plan.)
For the rest of us, and at least one major record label executive, the numbers suggest the recording industry should stop trying to plug the Hoover Dam with bubble gum. Change has come.
