Moving Toward a Balanced and Effective Response to Internet Music Piracy

Peer-to-peer file sharing of music over the Internet is perceived as a major threat to the international recording industry. This article proposes a novel response to this issue and contrasts this proposed approach with the response of the recording industry to date. The author suggests that piracy could be reduced by changing the distribution of music to an application service provider (ASP) model. Consumers would pay to use software residing on a remote server to play downloaded files but would not possess a complete copy of a physical product that could be reproduced. By selling music as an application, the industry could exercise tighter control over the security of its product without attempting to secure every computer, music player, and CD manufactured. The ASP approach would also limit infringement to the much more serious crime of hacking a corporate server and would eliminate the need to sue large numbers of otherwise law abiding consumers.