Digital piracy undermines the licensed music business across many forms and channels; greatly affecting the sustainability of the industry and livelihood of musicians.
Content Protection
Overview
The music industry is a business whose success depends on certainty in the legal environment and on copyright law. This is a constant and ever-changing challenge – the music market internationally continues to be distorted by unfair competition from unlicensed services.
IFPI estimates that 40% of internet users access unlicensed music content.
Digital piracy undermines the licensed music business across many forms and channels – unlicensed streaming websites, peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks, cyberlockers and aggregators, unlicensed streaming and stream ripping and mobile applications.
Combating Digital Piracy
The industry is taking a comprehensive, multi-pronged approach:
- Consumer education on copyright and the value of music;
- Working with law enforcement agencies to tackle online piracy;
- Litigation against online pirate services; and
- Engaging with policymakers and legislators worldwide to create an environment in which the music sector can grow.
The industry is also working with online stores to remove infringing apps and to ensure that apps cannot access illegal websites.
The industry believes all parties in the digital economy have a responsibility to support legitimate digital commerce and help tackle piracy in all its forms. Record companies are looking work with advertisers, domain registrars, internet service providers (ISPs), payment providers and search engines to achieve this goal. Courts around the world are finding that the law also requires greater cooperation from online intermediaries.