Music Piracy Research

What is music piracy?

Music piracy is when tracks that are copyrighted are stolen (released without owner consent, sold without owners consent, copied, used without owners consent.) This infringes copyright laws.

The Digital Economy Act 2010

1.       ISP’s music regulate illegal file sharing and downloading files by slowing down accesses to internet, sending letters to the offenders and issuing strikes

2.       ISP’s must tell police

3.       Websites can be blocked if there is a threat of copyright infringement

4.       Fines up to £50,000 can be issued- considered to be proportionate to the harm caused to the UK industry’s

Criticisms of the Digital Economy Act

1.       Public Wi-Fi?

2.       What should happen to people who illegally download material? Criminal record? Fine?

3.       One person or group?

4.       Can it ever be proven?

5.       Do the public want/agree with this law?

6.       BBC found that 87% of people thought that internet access should be a human right

7.       TalkTalk has claimed that 80% of youngsters will continue to download music

8.       TalkTalk – don’t disconnect us , 2009 , shouldn’t be everyone that gets punished

9.       Can it ever be stopped?

10.   Why is it the ISP responsibility?

11.   How have other countries done it?

 

Case Studies

Lime Wire (2010)

1.       Four-year legal battle with the US music industry.

2.       Platform intentionally caused a "massive scale of infringement" by permitting the sharing of thousands of copyrighted works by its 50 million monthly users.

3.       Founded in 2000 by Mark Gorton

4.       US recorded music sales fell to $7.7bn in 2009 from $14.5bn in 1999.

5.       LimeWire planned to release a service called Spoon, which would allow users to legally purchase copyrighted tracks. The deal fell through, however, when record labels were told that the site would need at least a year to migrate illicit filesharers to the new service.

The Pirate Bay (2006)

1.       The Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and has established itself as the world's most high-profile file-sharing site.

2.       The Pirate Bay's fame became too much for Swedish authorities, and in March 2006 the site's offices were raided by police investigating allegations of copyright violations.

TV shack

1.       A British student can be extradited to the United States for running a website linking to sites carrying pirated TV shows and films, a court has ruled.

2.       Richard O'Dwyer, a 23-year-old student at Sheffield Hallam University,  judge Quentin Purdy ruled that there were no valid reasons why he could not be sent to New York state for trial.

3.       US customs agents are seeking his prosecution over a website O'Dwyer set up when he was 19 called TVShack, and ran until his arrest last year.

4.       This provided links to other sites hosting pirated versions of TV shows and film.

5.       so popular that the student earned £15,000 per month in advertising revenue, US prosecutors claim.

 

 

 

I wanted to make sure that we were aware of the piracy that happens in the music industry as this could be potentially damaging to the products that our chosen artists produce.