What's with them young whippersnappers?
Found on Globeandmail on Thursday, 29 September 2005
Canadians illegally download 14 music CDs or other files from the Internet for every file they take from the web legally, a new recording-industry poll suggests.
The illegal downloading has cost retail music stores more than half a billion dollars in lost sales since 1999, a study by Pollara for the recording industry estimates.
Canadians between the ages of 18 and 29 are much more willing than other age groups to make illegal copies of software programs, cheat on exams or even shoplift, an Environics poll suggests.
Of those asked, 6 per cent of younger Canadians said they would leave a store without paying for a piece of clothing, compared with 2 per cent of the population at large.
Half a billion dollars in 6 years. That are losses of 83 million per year. According to the CRIA, they made roughly 3.8 billion in the same time. 633 million per year. Losses are 13%. Now the industry constantly whines about decreasing sales and blames P2P, but forgets to mention other resources, like iTunes. They also don't consider that their current lawsuit and disc crippling efforts have a quite negative impact. And to sum it up: a survey which throws filesharing and theft together loses its credibility.