Cary Sherman, the president of the Recording Industry Association of America, has admitted in an interview with the BBC that illegal download sites will never be completely eradicated, and that music will always be available for free somewhere on the internet.
"Our aim is not to completely eliminate music piracy or illegal peer-to-peer services altogether," he told BBC Online. "As long as it is within a reasonable amount of control then we will be happy but we are still a long way from that." Sherman gave the interview after research from analysts Jupiter showed more people were now willing to pay for reliable music downloads – though, while up, the positive figure still sits at only 19%, so Sherman is right in saying much work is still to be done.
Jupiter Research’s Mark Mulligan welcomed Sherman’s realistic response. "There will always be those willing to develop alternative illegal services. It has got to be accepted that file sharing will always be there just as shoplifting is accepted as wastage in the retail sector."
That said, don’t expect any let down on the RIAA’s campaign against the main non-legit download services. Sherman confirmed the industry’s anti-piracy efforts would increase in 2003, and that those effort would not just be concentrated in the court room. "We are taking the message to universities and corporations that illegal downloads waste bandwidth and expose their networks to security problems," Sherman said, giving an example of one new method to reduce downloading.
Keen to be seen to not just be working on negative initiatives, the RIAA points out they have been working with the record labels to develop workable attractive legitimate download sites, encouraging people away from the illegal services. But Mulligan warned that these too were very much in the early stages – and it was yet to be seen if large numbers of music downloaders would eventually opt for legit services, over the free systems that have existing longer.