Question

Matt Phillips , The ability to share albums and songs with friends, make recommendations and debate the worth of a group or artist has long been one of the intrinsic pleasures associated with listening to popular music. In the 80s, home taping was predicted to “kill” music, yet the music industry survived (and thrived because of) the humble cassette. Isn’t digital file sharing just the modern day equivalent of this age old practice?
Asked by larry1 on Oct 30 2007 5:42:03 PM and supported by 38 members MORE!

Answer

That was a BPI campaign that was done 25 years ago; the BPI’s copped a lot of flak for it. We tend to look forward rather than backwards, so we don’t tend to talk about that too much. There’s a massive difference between giving a C90 (cassette) to a mate and posting a perfect digital file on the internet for literally millions to take. This does reflect how little people realise what copyright infringement and piracy is all about. People have used the ‘Home Taping’ slogan to undermine very illegitimate arguments as to why file-sharing’s bad for the music industry.

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