Music Pirates Take To Cyberwaves

The jukeboxes are the 1990s equivalents of the pirate radio stations that pumped out pop music from North Sea ships in the 1960s. They release music over the internet in the form of MPEG3 digitally compressed files, called MP3s, which can be downloaded free of charge on to home computers.

Most pirate jukeboxes are run for free by young music buffs, often students using university servers. Although they do not make money, they are breaching copyright by distributing songs without the record companies permission.

Last week, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which represents the US record labels, initiated legal action against three unauthorised jukeboxes. All three sites have now closed, but the number of internet jukeboxes is rising so rapidly that the RIAA, and its counterparts in other countries, will almost certainly take more to court.

 

Technically, it has been possible to operate digital jukeboxes for some time. Until recently they were expensive to set up, the sound quality was poor and it took too long to download the music.

Advances in technology have eroded those difficulties. Anyone who is reasonably computer-literate can store music from a compact disc (a near-perfect digital version of the original recording) on MP3 files, which can be posted on a web site.

Other people can then download each song on to their computer hard disks within 25 minutes using a typical modem, or two minutes on a speedier service like a cable modem, or ISDN telephone line.

The music can be replayed on the hard disk, or recorded on to a $500 CD recorder.

Until recently, there were so few pirate jukeboxes that the record companies, musicians and music publishers, which are legally entitled to receive royalties whenever a record is sold, turned a blind eye. Yet so many digital pirates have emerged since the start of this year, that the RIAA estimates there are now literally hundreds in the US alone, and a growing number in other countries. Downloading music free of charge from the internet is becoming increasingly popular among the 15 to 30 year olds who tend to be frequent record buyers and are often computer enthusiasts. The music industry now stands to lose substantial sums of money because of the unauthorised distribution of its copyrights. Record companies are also concerned that the proliferation of pirate jukeboxes could jeopardise their own long-term plans to sell music on-line. The RIAA, which had previously sent warning letters to suspected digital pirates, toughened its stance by taking three of them to court last week. It also intends to crack

down on student-run jukeboxes by lobbying university authorities to stop them using campus servers. Publicly, the RIAA has expressed its determination to continue to take legal action whenever necessary. Privately, it recognises that the new breed of digital pirates will be extremely difficult to control. One problem is detection. For the past 18 months, the RIAAs anti-piracy unit has employed a team of investigators who surf the internet looking for copyright abuses. Individual record labels have also started hiring specialist digital detectives to track down infringements. Even if a pirate jukebox is identified and closed down, it can easily set up again almost immediately at a new internet address. An additional problem is that copyright law is very weak in some countries, notably Luxembourg and Bulgaria. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the industry worldwide, is developing systems to control access to digital music signals by encoding them, and to

tattoo them with an embedded signal for easier identification. Yet neither system is ready for use, and pirates may eventually find ways round them. Battling against digital piracy also poses a marketing dilemma for the music industry. Internet jukeboxes have the same buccaneering air as the 1960s pirate radio stations. A concerted effort to curb their activities could prove counter-productive for an industry whichregularly spends millions of dollars on publicity to nurture hip, anti-establishment images for its acts. An embarrassing row erupted last month when Oasis, the UK rock group, threatened to prosecute any unofficial web sites dedicated to the band which used copyrighted music samples, photographs and video clips without permission. The unofficial sites protested against the crackdown, and most media coverage was critical of Oasis. A new site, Oasis Webmasters For Internet Freedom, was launched to co-ordinate the protest. Its home page taunted Oasis by quoting the lines - Dont ever stand aside,

Dont ever be denied - from Roll With It, one of the bands own singles. Alice Rawsthorn Copyright Financial Times Limited 1997. All Rights Reserved.