'The Recording Industry Association of America ('RIAA') has acknowledged that P2P file-sharing is less of a threat to music sales than bootleg CDs.
The RIAA's chief executive, Mitch Bainwol, last week said music fans acquire almost twice as many songs from illegally duplicated CDs as from unauthorised downloads, Associated Press reports.
Legal downloads accounted for four per cent of music acquisitions, while official CDs accounted for almost 50 per cent of the total. ... Only 16 per cent came from illegal downloads.'
Source: The Register
Some interesting speculation from Ars TechnicaIt seems possible that the RIAA has renewed its anti-CD-R rhetoric in order to lay the groundwork for a campaign to enact a Canadian-style tax on recordable media. The RIAA can argue that they've tried copy protection and that it just doesn't work, so a recordable media tax is necessary to make up for sales lost to CD-R-based 'piracy'.
Originally by The Register - Internet and Law: Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs, 11:04 PM