Music Piracy Music English

Ten inconvenient truths

1. Pirate Bay, one of the flagships of the anti-copyright movement, makes

thousands of € from advertising on its site, while maintaining its anti-
establishment “free music” rhetoric.

2. Allofmp3.com, the well-known Russian website, has not been licensed

by a single IFPI member, has been disowned by right holder groups
worldwide and is facing criminal proceedings in Russia.

3. Organized criminal gangs and even terrorist groups use the sale of counterfeit CDs to raise revenue
and launder money.

4. Illegal file-sharers don’t care whether the copyright infringing work they distribute is from a major
or independent label.

5. Reduced revenues for record companies mean less money available to take a risk on “underground”
artists and more inclination to invest in “bankers” like American Idol stars.

6. ISPs often advertise music as a benefit of signing up to their service, but facilitate the illegal
swapping on copyright infringing music on a grand scale.

7. The anti-copyright movement does not create jobs, exports, tax revenues and economic growth – it
largely consists of people pontificating on a commercial world about which they know little.

8. Piracy is not caused by poverty. Professor Zhang of Nanjing University found the Chinese citizens
who bought pirate products were mainly middle or higher income earners.

9. Most people know it is wrong to file-share copyright infringing material but won't stop till the law
makes them, according to a recent study by the Australian anti-piracy group MIPI.

10. P2P networks are not hotbeds for discovering new music. It is popular music that is illegally file-
shared most frequently.

http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_news/20070531.html

What is our opinion of the “truths”?

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List three consequences of music piracy?

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English materials by Veronica Gilhooly © Learnwell Oy 2008 Music
www.thelanguagemenu.com Page 1