Peer 2 Peer

Author:  Wes Harbaugh Date:  2005.10.13 Topic:  Other Provider:  Manufacturer:

The new breed of programs released brought more than music with them, there have been movies, porn, software, books, and other intellectual property. This caused more companies and organizations to become involved in the anti-piracy movement, arguing that it is having a massive effect on their sales that is creating exponentially as more and more people discover the magic of P2P clients. These groups are well known they include, the Recording Industry Association (RIAA), the Motion Picture Association of America, Microsoft, and many other private companies who value intellectual property over anything else.

So the bottom line is money, these companies think that they are losing gross amounts of money on users downloading their music and software. To an extent, they are. Over the last few years several studies have appeared on the internet. Some of them independent, some of them funded by the RIAA. One of the more amusing ones in my opinion was quite recently showcased on www.Slashdot.org was a study that showed that people who downloaded music for free were much more likely to cheat at school and shoplift. There's a difference between clicking a mouse button and holding a gun to someone's face while you commit armed robbery. Music downloading is not punishable by hard time at the moment and it is done in the privacy of your own home. This particular study was funded by the RIAA just for a note.

So how much money has been lost to piracy? From my perspective, more money has been spent on preventing it than actual losses from sales. There is no correct answer. All there is to go on are sales charts and download charts showing which ones are increasing and which ones are decreasing. The RIAA can say their profits go down due to downloading music illegally, or they could have gone down due to lack of releases of music, it's hard to tell. Studies have been published defending both sides and still the RIAA does have the advantage of the law against P2P users. Usage statistics, recently have shown that Apple's iTunes music store is out doing P2P networks. This is due to several reasons:

• Users can buy only the tracks they want
• Users can preview their music and find new artists they like and want to download
• 99 cents per song is a good deal
• Due to fear of impending lawsuits users are going legit with their music
• The iPod plugs into the music store very easily and is currently the most popular Mp3 player on the market

Recently, several record labels are lobbying to increase the 99 cent charge per song due to the boom of success with the iTunes store or else they will withdraw licensing for the music in the store. Yahoo is sure to have the same problem soon as their tracks are 79 cents a piece if you sign up for a subscription. Increasing the prices will push people back to illegitimate ways of acquiring music, so the labels will in the end have less money in theory.