Music Sales Drop Despite Penalties For Illegal Downloads
by Erica Wilkinson on Tuesday, October 1, 2013
by Erica Wilkinson on Tuesday, October 1, 2013
Netizens seem to have expected this to occur, and have taken to Twitter to express their frustration with this law.
From NHK:
After Year Of Applying Criminal Penalties, Sales Are Not Recovering
On the first day of next month it will have been one year since criminal punishment has been imposed on people who download music and movies that are posted illegally on the internet.
A consistent decrease in users of file sharing software is being seen. It is understood that there is has not been a connection between the decrease of file sharing software, and CD and music distribution sales recovering.
Since ‘Revised Copyright Act’ was enforced on the 1st of October last year, people who knowingly download pirated copies of music and movies on the internet are penalised.
The police have not yet uncovered an example of this, but according to the Association of Copyright for Computer Software, use of file sharing software programs “Winny” and “Share”, which are used to exchange illegal files, has decreased by almost 40%. This can be seen as an effect of the revised law.
On the other hand, from when the system changed last October until June this year, in the same time period in previous years there was a 5% increase in losses in CD and DVD sales because of illegal downloading. But, from January this year until August last month, the latest data shows that from last year losses have been decreasing by 7%.
In regards to additional music distribution, from October last year until June there has been a steep decrease of 24% compared to the previous year. It is understood that there is no connection between music distribution and a recovery in sales. The Recording Industry Association of Japan’s Managing Director Kenji Takasugi said “the legal reforms have had the effect of increasing rental use, but there still isn’t a connection between the legal reforms and an increase in people forking out money to buy music and movies. We will continue public awareness actions about illegal downloading, and we want to continue the recovery in sales by making good music and improving the ease of support systems”.
