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London (pte044/25.07.2005/16:05) - Since a crack-down on illegal file sharing by the record industry in 2003, numbers in illegal downloading of music has declined, and there has been a boom in legal music downloads.
Figures in above-board file sharing have tripled in the past year, the IFPI, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry http://www.ifpi.org , said in a report. The company says that the figures are proof that the war against piracy is being won.
Between January and June 2005, 180 million tracks were legally downloaded in the US, Britain, Germany and France - more legal tracks, says the IFPI, than in the whole of 2004.
Britain had the most legal downloads, with 10 times more downloads (to 10 million) in the last six months. In the United States they have almost tripled - to 159 million.
"Whether it's fear of getting caught breaking the law, or the realisation that many networks could damage your home PC, attitudes are changing, and that is good news for the whole music industry," IFPI chairman John Kennedy said about music fans and illegal file sharing.
There are currently lawsuits in progress in UK, US, Japan, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Iceland, the Netherlands and Italy for music piracy. The offenders are most probably men aged between 20 and 35 who live in urban environments. The average fine for illegal music downloading is about 3,000 euros.
There are currently 300 legal digital music websites, three times as many as existed a year ago. Digital music services have registered 2.2m subscribers around the world, which is up from 1.5m in January. The two most popular are iTunes, offering 1.5m tracks and Napster, which offers 1.2m.
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