Peter Cochrane's Uncommon Sense: MP3 shoplifting

[sven]

Entirely by chance I am sat in a coffee shop of a book and music store in Toronto reading an article that features the chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). This includes a picture of him holding a CD declaring that MP3 wars are over because their much-publicised prosecution of pirates and downloaders has resulted in a decline in the number of net downloads during the past month.

So it is with a sense of complete irony I sit observing a group of young people just two tables away with a laptop and an assortment of MP3 players. In turn a member of the group is despatched to the music section to return with a CD that is taken out of the box and slipped into the laptop. It is then obviously ripped and stripped in full public gaze and distributed among the portable devices on the table. This is the most blatant scene of digital shoplifting I have ever witnessed.

I sit for an hour drinking coffee and observing these youngsters go about the business of collecting music tracks for free. There are security cameras, sales staff and at least one security man walking the floor. The coffee bar waitress happily keeps serving cokes and coffee as the group continues to plunder. They seem totally unabashed and unaware that I am observing them. I am now faced with something of a moral dilemma – do I grass on these kids or do I just continue observing?

This turns out to be a difficult decision because I am not on my own. I’m travelling with a colleague from India who has just purchased an MP3 player for his son’s birthday. This particular player can be addressed through a USB port which he does not have on his laptop but I do. So while making my observations I am also in the process moving a large number of Indian classical and folk music tracks from his laptop to mine to then load on this new MP3 player.

Just where here did he get these tracks? I could ask but I decide not to and presume they are his paid-for property. In the circumstances, I decide to do nothing and just continue observing the digi-shoplifters at work.

The RIAA has always seemed blissfully unaware of the ingenuity and capability of the opposition. If this were a military campaign any sensible general would first ascertain the strength and capability of the enemy but in its war with the online community the RIAA has not done so. For starters there are around 400 million people engaged in MP3 file swapping – and a large proportion are far smarter then anyone employed by the music industry. At every opportunity the RIAA is thwarted and outmanoeuvred by a network of smart individuals. Here is the RIAA declaring a victory as dark networks have evolved to protect the identity of users providing large libraries of MP3 files.

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