Annoying add-ons slow growth of file-sharing

[KiwiCoromandel]

Annoying add-ons slow growth of file-sharing

17.03.05

by Charles Arthur

Is file-sharing really on the wane? And if it is, what's the true cause?

If you believe Britain's biggest record labels, in the form of the British Phonographic Industry, we are already on the road to the Elysian fields where everyone buys their music either legally online or legally in shops, and never duplicates a CD or wanders on to a file-sharing network.

Well, they can hope, but it's wise to have something helping things along.

Last week they won a High Court order that will force six internet service providers to hand over the names of 31 people the industry alleges have been making "large numbers" of songs available through such networks.

The previous week, the group persuaded 23 out of 26 people it had brought cases against on the same grounds to make out-of-court settlements, paying up to 4000 ($10,350) each (the average was 2000).

So what's the trend in file-sharing use? Interestingly, it does seem to be vaguely downwards, although it's very hard to pin that down to a particular country. And it might be more correct to say that the trend in online music file-sharing is not growing, but stabilising.

Read more.........

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1...jectID=10115618