Music Biz Pushes Piracy Blame To ISPs; Digital Sales Up 40 Percent
We said in December the music industry would this year start to shift blame for piracy on to ISPs. As of today - and buoyed by recent similar French moves - the business is going after access providers in a big way.
Context & Ripple Effects
The industry had already framed unauthorized copying as a problem to be stopped in its 2006 campaign against “music cheats”. The 2008 report changes the enforcement target: with digital sales reported up 40 percent, record companies are pairing evidence of online demand with pressure on the access providers that carry file-sharing traffic.
First-order effects
- Internet service providers become the music industry’s immediate enforcement counterpart, rather than merely the network used by alleged infringers.
- Record labels can present rising digital sales as support for protecting a growing legitimate download market while escalating their anti-piracy campaign.
Second-order effects
- ISPs face pressure to choose whether to absorb copyright-enforcement demands, negotiate cooperative measures with labels, or resist taking on policing responsibilities.
- Digital music sellers gain a stronger industry argument that anti-piracy enforcement and paid digital distribution should be pursued together.
Third-order effects
- If labels continue shifting responsibility from individual users to network operators, copyright enforcement will increasingly be contested at the infrastructure layer rather than solely through action against alleged infringers.
The trend: Music copyright strategy is moving from pursuing individual file-sharers toward making internet access providers accountable for enforcement.