Pirates Ahoy!

You've all heard at least one version of the scenario as to how we'll enjoy our favourite music in the not too distant future.

You won't actually buy recordings in the shops at all, it seems. Instead you'll order up, say three tracks from the new Kula Shaker album on your computer, the music will be piped in through your phone system or through the Internet, go straight into your hi-fi system and you'll get charged on your phone bill.

But while you might rejoice at the prospect of reclaiming some valuable house space for some other purpose, the music industry has been taking a collective global gulp at the prospects of trying to monitor who's listening to what and how they get their due return.

But, while the above scenario, or a version thereof, may be hovering over the horizon, there's the more immediate threat from the way in which the availability of music on the Internet—much of it illegally so—is eating into the legitimate label's market. Two years ago it was estimated that sales of records through the network were expected to reach $6 billion by the end of this century, but the real figure may be nearer to twice that, and there's a fair chance that the illegal percentage of that total will be quite substantial.

Meanwhile, the Industry is caught between the ongoing and growing illegal market for formats that will probably die out sooner rather than later (cassettes, CDs, mini-discs, vinyl, the lot), while at the same time struggling to adjust to the new era of the record-free music fan with the whole world of music literally at his or her fingertips via the domestic keyboard. With literally no hard evidence available the question is: what can you do to stop the folks next door illegally downloading their fave raves from the Internet, in the comfort and privacy of their own homes? And even if you can somehow prove that some material was illegally downloaded through my computer system, how can you prove it was me who did it?

In the meantime, the ready and widespread availability of pirated and counterfeit recordings has itself turned into a multi-billion, global industry, not least in countries such as Russia and China where the concept of intellectual copyright hasn't quite caught on yet.

As one Irish industry insider put it: "In all of these situations, no money is being received by the record companies, the artists, the songwriters, the producers—nobody makes anything at all, except the thieves." The industry's worries are understandable given that a drop in profit has an immediate effect on the availability of cash to invest in new talent. It's a deteriorating situation which has prompted the mobilisation of anti-piracy troops to fight the fight on all fronts across the globe.

The other problem—and let's be honest here—is that we all support the piracy industry to some degree or other. Who, apart from those of you with a memory of Ben Dunne-like capabilities, cannot recall running off a quick copy of that album for a best friend's party? Equally, as a big fan of, say, Mercury Rev, could you resist the lure of an exclusive bootleg recording of their last gig in Dublin if it was offered to you?

Record company personnel do it, fans do it, journalists do it, birds do it, even educated fleas do it (copyright: Cole Porter). But that hardly makes it legal, and even the industry has learned to distinguish the irritating, if comparatively harmless, single tape copying from the mass production of top-selling recordings, often for sale at cheap prices to a public either unaware or simply not bothered by the appalling quality of some of the bargains on offer. I've personally heard a bootleg of a live Rolling Stones gig on CD which was so bad it was absolutely impossible to tell what songs they were playing. You'd have to be a fan of certifiable proportions to feel happy after handing over your £20 for a sonic mess like that.

Unfortunately for the industry, the quality on some recordings is quite extraordinary. Some are obviously studio recordings and I've even heard live bootleg albums that were better than the legal thing in the way they captured the true excitement of a concert.

Nor is the situation faced by the industry top brass helped by those artists who encourage the bootlegging of live recordings or the availability of unreleased takes in order to cultivate their legendary status. Several top artists (e.g. Neil Young) are reputed to collect copies of bootlegs of their own gigs, but Frank Zappa actually went one step further and turned the tables on the bootleggers by releasing their illegally-taped recordings on his own label!

Also, the slow release of recordings which large numbers of the public obviously want, further serves to exacerbate the dilemma faced by the true fan. Bootleg recordings of Dylan's legendary 1966 Albert Hall concert must have sold millions before the famous tracks finally received an official release last year. Likewise, the Basement Tapes by the same artist were available freely as bootlegs long before they were released legitimately. The same applies to many of the recordings released on the Beatles Anthology series. Most serious fans already had them. When U2's Zoo TV tour played two consecutive dates at the RDS in Dublin, fans coming out of the second gig could buy bootleg copies of the first. Thus far, recordings of those gigs have not been officially released.

So, is it too much to expect the real fan, who is otherwise expected to snap up every morsel on legitimate release, including multiple releases of the same CD single, to pass by on the other side of the road with wallet firmly padlocked against temptation?

Well, theft is theft and there can be no excuse on any level for the mass duplication of albums otherwise openly available in the marketplace. For the privilege of owning one you may pay a little less but you will also get something that by its nature is almost guaranteed to be of a lesser quality (at least!). It may even be unplayable, on top of which you may have little comeback if a dodgy disc does some permanent damage to your CD player.

In Ireland, the campaign against piracy has been stepped up recently. The reason is simple. Counterfeiting poses a threat to the income potential of the legitimate copyright owners. And if income goes down, so too will the numbers employed in the industry. Not only that, but if A&R budgets are cut, minority-interest artists will be the first to suffer. These are the practical effects of the proliferation of market-stalls setting up around the country and offering counterfeit versions of top-selling tapes or CDs at substantially less than the normal retail price.

This escalating problem reached such a peak that in November of 1997 IRMA (the Irish Recorded Music Association) decided to employ their first Anti-Piracy Co-ordinator who, with the assistance of two private investigators and two plain-clothes Gardaí, instigated the first serious onslaught against piracy in Ireland.

Within one month they had, backed by court orders, seized thousands of tapes from street stalls and from cars supplying those stallholders. As a result of IRMA's ongoing efforts, there are far fewer illegal on-street traders in Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick today, although that is not to say they won't be back as soon as they either get desperate enough or find some loophole in the law.

But that clean-up seems to have pushed the trade off the high street and into the markets, and every week IRMA employees carry out spot-checks on markets all around the country for illegal bootlegs.

The biggest problem, of course, is that ultimately the public are the people who keep the pirates in business. But by purchasing a pirated recording, a member of the public is effectively a participant in breaking the law, which asserts—and quite rightly so—that the holders of intellectual copyright (e.g. novels, songs, videos, recordings, films, newspaper articles, etc.) are entitled to receive remuneration for their work.

That's the law, so there's little point telling the judge that you think Madonna has enough money already. That simplistic excuse overlooks the fact that there are other people, (producers, management, songwriters, etc.) who may also be entitled to money from the sales of that work and they may be far less well off than our Maddy.

As outlined above, the Internet itself poses enormous challenges, even in Ireland. IRMA is now committed to actively tracking down websites in Ireland which offer unlicensed tracks, given that the comparatively new MP3 format means that a single CD can easily carry the entire Beatles catalogue of albums and you can buy such CDs over the Internet for as little as $20.

IRMA's task is further compounded by the arrival on the market of the recordable CD, a development likely to spark a level of CD piracy that will shortly exceed that of tapes.

Johnny Lappin is Secretary of the MPAI (Music Publishers Association Of Ireland), effectively a trade association representing the major international and local publishing companies operating here. He's also a board member of MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society). Both organisations are openly supportive of the initiatives taken by IRMA to combat piracy in this country which Lappin sees as a serious threat to the future of the entire business here.

"Piracy murders music and kills creativity. It's as simple as that," he told Hot Press. "If members of the public buy from bootleggers they are dealing with people who will only carry the top selling albums and even then their copies are often of dubious quality. The bootleggers don't invest any money whatsoever in developing new talent or in catering for minority interests or fans of emerging artists. If we'd been depending on bootleggers there'd have been no U2, no Cranberries, no Boyzone, no recording studios. The industry would simply have died long ago."

According to Lappin: "It's also worth remembering that some bootleggers in Ireland have close connections with the paramilitary organisations, so buying bootlegs can even mean you are indirectly funding terrorism and murder in this country."

And his final word on the subject?

"The only policy for any decent person who cares about music is simply not to buy bootlegs at all."