|
by Simon Avery
Workopolis.com
Jun 25, 2004
|
|
The recording industry's effort to quell
on-line music swapping through legal action chilled download activity
for a short while, but Canada's youth have become almost as bold as
ever in pulling music off the Web without paying, a market study shows.
Late last year, after the Recording Industry Association of America
sued thousands of music downloaders for copyright infringement, the
amount of Canadian teenagers swapping music on-line dropped to 40 per
cent from 60 per cent.
This spring, however, activity has surged, with 51 per cent of 12- to
19-year-olds downloading music without paying for it, according to Solutions
Research Group, a Toronto-based market research firm.
The recording industry's legal assault appeared to have even less of
an effect on adult Canadians between the ages of 20 and 29, with 28
per cent of them taking music files off the Web this spring, down only
slightly from a peak of 31 per cent in early 2003, according to Solutions
Research.
"Free downloads are too hard to resist, despite greater awareness
of intellectual property issues surrounding music," said Kaan Yigit,
the director of the study.
Numerous companies have launched websites in recent months that sell
music downloads and compensate the artists and recording studios.
Sites such as Roxio Inc.'s Napster.ca and Moon Taxi Media Inc.'s Puretracks
have grabbed their fair share of publicity with their Canadian debuts.
Puretracks has just expanded its reach with a distribution deal with
Best Buy Co.'s Future Shop. In addition, Apple Computer Inc., of Cuppertino,
Calif., is expected to bring its successful iTunes music site to Canada
shortly.
Surprisingly, however, only 8 per cent of Canadians have ever visited
a paid download website, and four out of every five visits were simply
to browse, not to buy, Solutions Research found in its telephone survey
of 1,605 Canadians last month.
Legal activity in the United States has had some effect on Canadian
teenagers and young adults.
Among 12- to 29-year-olds, 42 per cent agreed that downloading songs
off the Internet is theft, up from 35 per cent a year earlier, Solutions
Research said.
"The more awareness you can get that it is illegal, the healthier
it is. It's not necessarily immediately solving a problem, but it's
got to help," said Brian Robertson, president of the Canadian Recording
Industry Association. "There's an awareness that it's just not
there for the taking."
However, Mr. Robertson said a ruling by the Federal Court of Canada
in March, which said sharing music files doesn't constitute copyright
infringement, has not helped public perception.
Among other things, the ruling, by Mr. Justice Konrad von Finckenstein,
said the CRIA cannot get Internet service providers to turn over names
of individuals alleged to be downloading music. The CRIA is appealing
the verdict.
"The threats of litigation do have some effect," Mr. Robertson
said.
|
|
