One in three music CDs sold around the world are illegal copies, according to the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry who presented their latest report on music piracy to a conference in Madrid yesterday. Music piracy, the trade organisation claims, costs the industry in the region of $4.6 billion a year, and is funding organized crime groups around the globe.
The IFPI revealed the ten countries with the worst record for harbouring music pirates, reporting on local efforts to tackle the problem in those countries, and making recommendations on what still needs to be done.
The list included the usual suspects like Brazil, China, India, Indonesia and Mexico, but also Spain. The latter's status as the worst Western country for music piracy was behind the decision by the IFPI to stage the event in Madrid rather than London. Commenting on Spain's poor piracy record, IFPI boss Jon Kennedy said: "We are launching this report in Spain for a very good reason. Spain was once a thriving legitimate music market known for the quality of its artists and the success of its music industry. Today Spain is known for the most serious piracy problems in Europe and urgent action is needed to do something about it. We are very concerned at what piracy is doing to Spanish music. It is destroying it. The music industry fights piracy. If we did not, the music industry quite simply would not exist. Spain should not be on the list." While the IFPI recognised that the Spanish government has launched a campaign to prosecute music pirates, they said more needed to be done because a quarter of CDs sold there are still illegal copies.
On other countries with poor piracy records Kennedy continued: "China has promised to close down many of the illegal factories so it's now less of an export problem but more of a domestic problem". He reported that the Chinese authorities were "engaging in serious discussions" on the issue, particularly with the US government. Taiwan, meanwhile, has also gone to great lengths to tackle the music pirates, working with the UK, Japan and Germany to curb the illegal music trade there.