Back in June, Japan enforced the law against piracy which would allow anyone who sold, bought, uploaded, downloaded or even watched unauthorised media to be prosecuted.  Furthermore, Internet Service Providers (ISP) would have to pay fees to allow the music companies to keep constant surveillance over their customers. This law has caused a huge decrease in sales for the music industry, as consumers have become so afraid to download legitimate content, in fear that it may be fake, leading to them being arrested. A recent consumer survey showed that 68% of the polls spend no money on purchasing music. This has been the highest in Japan in over 10 years.

This is a great example of what Tom Dobrzanski had to say in COMM 101 class about how bands feel about illegal downloads. As he quotes, it is essentially “free marketing” helping spread the word of the band, so why try to resist it?

Record labels continuously complain about loosing tons to illegal downloads but honestly, in this day and age, there is little to no way of stopping piracy. Even with the laws set in place it is still very possible to copy content. Back before torrenting was popular, kids would buy a CD, rip it off on their computer and simply transfer it to someone elses thumbdrive. If we were to go further back, kids would hold cassettes recorders by the radio to record their favorite song!

To any bands or record labels reading this now, why fight a battle you can’t win? try to find the brighter side of it, because without consumers listening and buying your music, you would not exist.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zolas

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torrenting

http://sourcefednews.com/japans-anti-piracy-laws-hurt-revenue/

http://www.japantoday.com/images/size/x/2012/11/download.jpg