Worldwide Update
Australia |Italy | India | Japan| Mexico |Zambia
The Numbers Don’t Lie: Piracy Still a Global Problem
On April 28, 2010, IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) published its Recording Industry in Numbers report to provide a “comprehensive picture of key trends of today’s music business.”
The trade group’s report shows that physical sales were down 12.7% on a global scale to $11.93 billion, a smaller decline than the 15% slump in physical sales for 2008. Trade revenue for global recorded music market totaled $17.03 billion in 2009, a year-over-year decline of 7.2%, according to IFPI.
According to the report, 80% of the global decline in sales occurred in the US and Japan, the two most technology-driven countries in the world, where the transition from physical media has been the most pronounced. In the US alone, digital sales account for nearly half (43%) of the recorded music market. Music sales in Japan were off 10.8% in 2009 to $4.05 billion, and sales in the US slipped 10.7% to $4.63 billion.
However, sales of recorded music were up in 13 markets, while six countries experienced growth in digital sales that was strong enough to offset the physical decline. The six countries were Australia, India, Mexico, South Korea, Thailand and the UK. The total global digital revenue jumped 9.2% to $4.31 billion. Digital music now accounts for 25.3% of all music sales.
Europe was the second-fastest growing region for digital sales in 2009, up by 29.7%, but the region’s digital share of revenue is still below the global average of 13%. The best digital growth was in Australia/New Zealand at 41.4%.
The UK remains the third-largest market, up 1.9% to $1.57 billion. Germany was down 3% to $1.53 billion to put it at number 4. Physical sales there represent 85% of that market, and in dollar terms, IFPI estimates the German music retail market is worth $2.148 billion, just $5 million less than the UK. Following the passage of anti-piracy measures in France, that market stabilized: it slid 2.7% for a total of $947.7 million. The real horror stories in 2009 were Spain (down 14.3%) and Italy (down 17.4%).
Performance rights income rose 7.6% for a worldwide total of $785 million. On a retail basis, IFPI estimates that the global recorded music market was worth $25.44 billion in 2009. SUSAN BOYLE’s “I Dreamed a Dream” was the world’s biggest-selling album last year with sales of 8.3 million.
IFPI chairman and CEO John Kennedy commented that the global music business is continuing to do its part, “investing in talent and developing new business models despite the problems of a market rigged by piracy.” He added, “reducing piracy is critical if these improvements are going to translate into long term recovery for our global business.”
IFPI.org, April 28, 2010
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The Hollywood Reporter, April 28, 2010
ZeroPaid.com, April 29, 2010 (Jared Moya)
AUSTRALIA
Nintendo Takes Action To Combat Piracy
Nintendo has confirmed the settlement of a Federal Court action against an individual in Australia for illegally copying and uploading to the Internet Nintendo’s highly-anticipated video game, New Super Mario Bros. Wii for the Wii™ console. The game file was first made available for illegal download worldwide on November 6, 2009, a week prior to its official release in Australia.
According to Nintendo, the legal proceeding was commenced to protect the creative rights and innovation of game developers, and to combat the growing international problem of Internet piracy. Under Australian law, copying and distributing games without the permission of the copyright holder is a breach of the Copyright Act. The legal proceeding resulted in a settlement in which the uploader agreed to pay Nintendo the sum of $1.5 million in damages to compensate for the loss of sales revenue caused by the infringements.
Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of technological forensics to identify the person responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution. On November 23, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order for the suspect’s residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from the premises in order to gain further evidence.
Nintendo continues to “guard its intellectual property rights in order to protect the interests of its valued consumers, its own interests, as well as the interests of game development companies.” The company has vowed to pursue those who attempt to jeopardize their industry by using all means available to it under the law.
Nintendo.com, February 9, 2010
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ITALY
Labaia.net Closed for Offering Access to The Pirate Bay
Italian Fiscal Police (GdF) in Bergamo have closed Labaia.net, a proxy site created specifically to allow Internet users in Italy to access The Pirate Bay.
The action came in direct response to a February 9, 2010 court order requiring ISPs in the country to block access to the unlicensed Pirate Bay service. The Court of Bergamo had ruled that Italian ISPs should act to prevent their users from accessing the notorious BitTorrent service that facilitates access to a large amount of copyright-infringing material.
The court originally ordered ISPs to act in 2008, but that verdict was appealed and overturned. A subsequent ruling by the Italian Supreme Court declared that ISPs could be required to block BitTorrent sites being illegally used to disseminate copyright infringing content, even if they are located outside the country. The Italian Supreme Court ruled that sites hosting torrent files play a significant role in the uploading and downloading process of their users, constituting a form of complicity in the offense of copyright infringement.
IFPI.org, February 9, 2010
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INDIA
Guruji.com CEO Arrested for Music Piracy
Guruji.com founder and CEO, Anurag Dod, was arrested in Bangalore, India on April 29, 2010. Along with other company executives, Dod was charged with alleged infringement of copyright by engaging in music piracy.
The action was initiated by music label T-Series whose music catalog was allegedly exploited by the website Guruji.com. Commenting on the arrest, T-Series VP digital content Neeraj Kalyan said, “Guruji.com was infringing our copyright under the garb of a search engine. The website was working in nexus with some music pirate websites and was exploiting our content.”
Users of the Guruji.com service were directed to a music player which linked to other pirate websites such as Songs.pk, musicplug.in, pz10.com and bollymobile.in. Guruji.com, which acted as a hub for these pirate sites, has been held legally accountable for doing so. Although the music player that was used to play content was based out of India, the company serving the content was based in India. This became a criminal offence according to Kalyan.
In October 2009, Guruji.com was rated as the most preferred music search engine by JuxtConsult, the online market research company in India. Guruji.com started in 2006 and initiated its music search engine in July 2008.
In addition to Guruji.com, T-Series plans to track down other pirate websites exploiting their content and initiating legal action against them. Previous to the recent action against Guruji.com and its CEO, T-Series had initiated legal proceedings against websites such as YouTube, MySpace and Ibibo.
RadioandMusic.com, April 30, 2010 (Anita Iyer)
JAPAN
Avatar Uploader Arrested
Japan has increased its efforts to toughen the measures against illegal file-sharing. The new P2P surveillance system, part of the new anti-piracy law introduced in January 2010, has produced its first major bust in Shizuoka.
The system helped the High-tech Crime Control Office arrest a 62-year-old man who was accused of uploading two major box-office hits: “Avatar” and “Percy Jackson and the Olympians.” The accused man uploaded “Avatar” in December 2009 after it was allegedly downloaded from another P2P file-sharing website. “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” was uploaded in March 2010.
The uploader has admitted to making about 500 movies available on torrent sites over the last four years. He also said he uploaded the flicks using “Share” software. The movie industry is extremely encouraged by the news and in a recent statement Mike Ellis, the president and managing director of the Motion Picture Association, Asia-Pacific region, thanked the police for their efforts.
MEXICO
Major Raids: Two Million Discs Seized
Mexican law enforcement officers and military personnel conducted two major anti-piracy enforcement operations during March 2010.
The first, aimed at a cartel known as “Los Zetas,” led authorities to raid five warehouses and five laboratories. The product seized included 349 burners, 125,000 recorded CD-Rs and more than 200,000 recorded DVD-Rs. In addition, five premises believed to be used for the storage, reproduction and sale of pirate music and films were also raided and eight gang members were arrested. APCM Mexico, the joint music and film industry anti-piracy unit, filed a formal complaint based on the evidence.
The second raid was conducted in Mexico City’s “Tepito” district, widely reputed to be a hub of commercial pirate activity. This operation resulted in the dismantling of two laboratories and 65 warehouses. More than 940,000 recorded DVD-Rs and 1,000,000 recorded CD-Rs were seized in this second operation.
Music Industry News Network, April 7, 2010
ZAMBIA
Pirate CDs and DVDs Crushed
Anti-piracy experts in the southern African state of Zambia say there is a need to intensify efforts against the piracy problem in shops set up at gas stations across the country. Kingsley Nkonde, an intellectual property specialist, has stated that he is saddened to see an increasing number of pirate vendors at gas stations across Zambia. The remarks were made at an anti-piracy event held in the capital city of Lusaka. At the event, thousands of pirate CDs and DVDs valued at more than $34 million were destroyed.
Nkonde is confident that the planned decentralization of the Zambian Police Service Intellectual Property Unit will see a reduction in physical format piracy, as it will encourage other enforcement agencies and stakeholders to take part in anti-piracy work. The crushed infringing CDs and DVDs had been confiscated at Lusaka International Airport in January 2010.
IFPI.org, April 8, 2010 (Peter Chikwampu)
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