PIRATES OF THE DISTRIBUTION
As broadband increases, p2p piracy to dog music for awhile

A new report outlined in CNNMoney/Reuters finds that although online sales for music (mail order CDs and downloads) will rise to nearly 4 BILLION by 2008, it will be overshadowed by p2p piracy, which will account for nearly five billion in lost revenue.

There's plenty of bad news to go around as peer-to-peer filesharing will grow in direct proportion to the availability of broadband around the world.

The report goes on to say that "... this one-step-forward-two-steps-back scenario is hardly comforting for the major music labels, which blame Net piracy for triggering a sharp decline in global music sales ... "

No mention that there have been other contributing factors like fewer releases, rising prices, or a marketing strategy which aims at the wrong demographic (those with money!).

Piracy is a major element, that much is certain. But E-R is beginning to wonder if there's a correlation between "lost revenue due to piracy" and the "estimated street value of drug seizures" ...