Not sure how this fits into that debate, but a new survey reckons that the average kid on the street has 800 illegally copied songs on their iPod or MP3 player, and that half of them are more than happy to share their entire digital music collection with anyone online. The survey, by the University Of Hertfordshire, says that the average yoof's music player contains 1770 songs, of which 842 are illegal copies. It's outrageous. I'd lock em all up meself, and throw away the key too.
The boss of music publisher representatives British Music Rights, who commissioned the survey, that's Feargal Sharkey by the way, was less Daily Mail about it, though he admitted the survey made for grim reading. The Telegraph quote him thus: "I was one of those people who went around the back of the bike shed with songs I had taped off the radio the night before. But this totally dwarfs that, and anything we expected". He said the solution lies in developing more and better legal services, and in making breaking copyright "unappealing". So there you have it.
Details of the survey have just gone online at www.bmr.org/page/press-release-29 - I might go have a look for myself and may report a bit more on it tomorrow.