Wednesday, June 15, 2005

OECD Steps Into Online Music Sharing Debate

Earlier this week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its study on the worldwide digital music industry.

The report is quite interesting in the context of litigation by the music recording industry against individuals who download and share music using P2P (peer-to-peer) network technology.

According to the OECD study, "(T)he use of P2P networks to exchange unauthorised copyright-protected content presents a significant challenge to the music industry and to the enforcement of intellectual property rights. There is currently a considerable volume of copyright infringement that is taking place among users of peer-to-peer networking software. This unfair competition puts pressure on legitimate online music and other content services and may have slowed commercial services that offer access to content online. Nevertheless, it is very difficult to establish a basis to prove a causal relationship between the size of the drop in music sales and the rise of file sharing. Sales of CDs, as well as the success of licensed on-line music services are likely to have been affected to some degree by a variety of other factors, for example physical piracy and CD burning, competition from other, newer entertainment products and faltering consumer spending in some markets."

Other studies on the issue:

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posted by Michel-Adrien at 12:32 pm

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