As an industry, you can live with a low-grade fever, but you cannot live with a cancer -- and that's the level that we're currently at. |
Growth in the illegal marketplace is just minimal in comparison [to the legal marketplace]. And I think what that indicates is that our efforts have helped. |
I guess I would respond by saying that in June, the United States Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the uploading and downloading of songs, in violation of copyright, is illegal. And, I think, against that backdrop, it's quite straightforward. |
It's not our goal to wipe out piracy entirely. It is our goal to bring it to a level of manageable control -- just as our industry has lived with physical piracy on the street for a number of years. |
It's plain and simple. Where there has been evidence of music theft, there are consequences for illegal activity. |
Just as parents are talking to their kids about smoking, or alcohol, or drug use, they're now talking to their kids about illegal downloading. |
That decline has taken a heavy toll on our industry as a whole -- from songwriters losing their jobs to record stores, especially those around college campuses, closing their doors. |
The Internet2 consortium is a unique and innovative test bed for us to explore technologies that will help us produce and distribute our content with an eye on protecting those creative works. |
Theft is theft. When you log onto an illegal service and download music for free without compensation to the artists, the songwriters, the publishers, the musicians -- all those thousands of individuals whose hard work and great talent has gone into making that music possible -- there is no difference between that and walking into a Wal-Mart and shoplifting a CD. |
This online theft has taken a tremendous toll on the industry as a whole. |
We will continue to send a strong message to the users of these illicit networks that their actions are illegal, they can be identified and the consequences are real. |
When you go online and illegally download music, there is no difference between that and walking into a local record store, convenience store, and shoplifting a CD. |