More RIAA sponsored nonsense

"Burned” CDs accounted for 29 percent of all recorded music obtained by fans
in 2004, compared to 16 percent attributed to downloads from online file-sharing
networks, said Mitch Bainwol, chief executive for the Recording Industry
Association of America."
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Nonsense. That stat is extremely misleading — its not the home user that is doing all the burning that endangers the Labels — its the illegal mass counterfeiter.

The statistic that the National Association of Recording Merchandisers need to be concerned over is 35%; That’s the number, according to a study last summer, of all CDs SOLD which are iIllegal dupes.

Here’s an excerpt:

"The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has published a report claiming that 35% of all CDs sold around the world are illegal copies that’s 1.1 billion pirate disks. The report also includes a list of countries recommended for government action: Brazil, China, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine.

Sales of illegal discs rose 4% in 2004, though the year saw the slowest increase since 2000, an indication that increased anti-piracy activity is having a positive effect.

Clearly the biggest threat to the record industry today is not P2P networks but the more traditional CD copying seen in the the IFPI’s ten priority countries where anti-piracy offensives are most needed."

Its not P2P or personal copies at home that should be of the greatest concern to the music industry — its the massive counterfeiting operations spinning out 100s of thousands of discs for sale, both abroad and in North America.

Further, there is a legal difference between a fair use copy and an
illegal commercial counterfeit. Making a copy for personal usage is
allowed under copyright law — as a back up, for the car, etc. That’s
considered "fair use."

A consumer who buys a disc, and then makes a back up (or even shares a copy with a friend) is the very least of the major labels worries.

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UPDATE August 16, 2005 4:30 pm

A commenter on GMSV reminds us that this is Deja vu all over again:

"In 1980 the RIAA was making the exact same argument. They wanted to
charge a $1 royalty per blank tape sale. This was in response to the availablity
of dual-deck tape recorder systems. The record industry made the point that home
recording and sharing of copyrighted material was illegal and a threat to
business.

Later, as record sales turned out to be growing, they quietly dropped their
protest. It turned out that sharing was actually stimulating interest."

The more things change . . .

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Sources:
Music Industry Worried About CD Burning
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NYTimes, August 16, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Music-Retailers.html

Recording industry: CD-burning a bigger problem than file-sharing
Posted on Sat, Aug. 13, 2005
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/12377388.htm