BPI CAMPAIGN IS FAILING

The one thing that might justify the BPI-RIAA use of lawsuits against so-called illegal downloaders would be if the expensive and unpopular method was achieving its aims. However, a new survery conducted by Mori on behalf of AOL shows once again that all that time and effort is being wasted:

More than three-quarters of those surveyed admitted that they had illegally downloaded music at least once. By contrast, just one in six said they exclusively used paid-for services such as Apple's iTunes Music Store or Napster to buy music over the internet.

Perhaps more disturbingly, though, is that the music industry's defence of the lawsuits - "nobody likes suing people, but by bringing a few actions we're educating the masses" - isn't actually working, either, as a lot of people say they still don't understand the law:

"[The surevy reported] a large degree of confusion among consumers about whether or not they were breaking copyright laws by using illegal sites. Only four in 10 said that they understood the law.

That, of course, is because dragging people to court only works as an educative process if the court proceedings are covered in a clear, simple fashion and everyone understands the results. Issuing threatening letters and bouncing people into settling out of court doesn't actually make anything very clear to anyone. It's why Stalin would throw show trials, of course: injustice must be seen to be done for it to have any effect.