BPI lament rise in unlicensed downloading

The BPI has just unveiled a big survey which - let's be honest - is just intended to try and push the case for ISPs being made to police copyright law in the UK.

They claim the nation is pretty much planning to download more and more unlicensed tunes, until even Simon Cowell is forced to get a proper job:

BPI chief executive Geoff Taylor said the findings were "disappointing" and expressed concern at a rise in illegal downloads from blogs and newsgroups.

More than 3,000 people aged between 16 and 54 took part in the online poll.

When questioned about their future plans, current users of unauthorised services reported that they actually intended to increase their illegal activities in the coming six months.

Really? That's how people phrased it, was it? "I intend to increase my illegal activities, at least until the summer"?

Given that the BPI have found that the law isn't working, and people don't actually consider what they're doing to be wrong, the labels have thrown in the towel and said they're going to concentrate their efforts on building the myriad of new revenue streams that exist in the new reality.

No, of course they haven't:

Mr Taylor said: "There are now more than 35 legal digital music services in the UK, offering music fans a great choice of ways to get music legally.

"It's disappointing that levels of illegal peer-to-peer use remain high despite this and the publicity surrounding imminent measures to address the problem. It's vital that those measures come into force as quickly as possible.

"The growth in other, non-peer-to-peer methods of downloading music illegally is a concern, and highlights the importance of including a mechanism in the Digital Economy Bill to deal with threats other than peer-to-peer."

"Our failure to stop the water flowing in through the floorboards and cascading through the ceiling doesn't mean that it's time to abandon the house; instead, it is a signal that we must buy larger pails and bail faster and faster."