Pirate Downloads Growing?

A new British report finds more people downloading music illegally, and not scared of the possible consequences.

A new report released yesterday has found that illegal music downloading is running at an all-time high and likely to rise.   In its fourth annual Digital Music Survey, British company Entertainment Media Research has discovered that 43% of its 1700 respondents say they’ve illegally downloaded tracks online, with only 33% saying they were worried about prosecution. Last year 36% were downloading and 42% were scared of being prosecuted.   Additionally, some 18% said they intended to download more illegal tracks.   The report delved more deeply into the reasons illegal downloads have risen. The conclusions are that consumers feel that price is the biggest factor, and that older tracks should be cheaper to download legally. One suggestion to emerge has been a differential in pricing, with older cuts being priced lower. In fact, 48% of those surveyed said they’d be willing to pay more for just-released tracks.   British record industry group BPI claimed that the figures showed that the music industry does need a new business model, but also has to have more protection against privacy, especially from Internet service providers.   “Industry cannot do it alone,” said a spokesman. “ISPs as gatekeepers, and government as legislators, must also play an active role in tackling copyright theft if the UK is to thrive as a knowledge economy.”   Yet it wasn’t all doom and gloom. There’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon as respondents said they use social networking sites to discover new music, with 30% saying they regularly or occasionally bought or downloaded tracks they’d discovered on such sites.