On July 14, 2005, the name MP3 celebrates its tenth anniversary. On this day in 1995, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits named the controversial crown prince of digital and Internet music ‘.mp3’.Ten years down, the name is nearly synonymous with ‘illegal’. Even those who exchange music files online rarely remember this day, and many, who do remember, are waging a blitzkrieg over its use.But MP3’s tenth year is especially important: Paid music downloads, the new face of MP3, leap-frogged this year. Sales tripled in the US to 158 million tracks, from 55 million over January-July 2004, according to US research firm Nielsen SoundScan. Over the same period, CD sales fell 7 per cent, it says.In the UK, legally downloaded songs touched 10 million according to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Many new standards, such as Apple’s iTunes emerged over last year as de facto standards of legit music downloads.India’s chequered history in dealing with pirated music, often exchanged on the MP3 format, has also pulled up its socks well in time.The anti-piracy movement, which has teamed up with agencies that fight copyright, patent and trademark violation, have bagged three high profile victories against infringers (excluding several smaller pirated music distributors and sellers) this year.‘‘Though issues still remain, our efforts at reducing piracy are bearing good results in India,’’ said Tarun Sawhney, director, anti-piracy, Asia with the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a grouping of big software firms fighting illegal copying and selling of software. BSA partnered this week with Soundbuzz, the largest digital music company in India, to publicise recent gains by the software and music industry in beating piracy.‘‘India needs to be exposed to the many ways in which piracy can be countered,’’ says Vivek Paul, operations director, Soundbuzz. These, he says, include subscription-based services, new retail tools, re-worked prices and discounts — all legitimate alternatives that are convenient too. But the BSA, buoyed by favourable judgements in Indian Courts and stringent action by police in several cases of violation, is taking a stronger line.‘‘Our impression is that it is no longer necessary to talk about what the law against piracy is. What is needed is love for and respect for IPR, a change in the fundamental approach towards IP,’’ says noted lawyer Pravin Anand.BSA argues that ‘‘punitive and exemplary damages’’ must be paid by infringers of IPR. On its part, the Indian music industry claims 2004-05 was the worst year of piracy — illegal sales went up by 50 per cent or more. This industry wants the right audience to be targeted with anti-piracy blitzkriegs.
