Tonpool, a German independent music
distributor sued in respect of a song entitled "Bitte hör nicht auf zu
träumen" by Xavier Naidoo, which was downloaded from a file sharing site
in 2011. The copyright owner asked ISP Deutsche Telekom for the name and
address of the file sharer however Deutsche Telecom failed to provide the
information, causing Tonpool to take the issue to court.
Until now ISPs in Germany had only been
required to share contact details of users who share files commercially or for
profit, however now ISPs can be required to disclose details of ordinary users
who distribute copyright protected content.
Further to my post
earlier this week reporting Donald P Harris' pod cast on file sharing, here
are some statistics on the German music industry (according to Billboard)
which show that, as many of the comments on my last blog post said, people are
still willing to pay for music.
The German Music Industry Association
(BVMI) has reported a 0.2% increase in overall revenue for the half of 2012. The
strongest growth was in album downloads, which jumped nearly 35 % year-on-year so that online music sales now account for
just under 20 % of total revenue in the German market, up from 14.4 % over the
same period last year.
The BVMI figures do not include revenue
from online streaming services - apparently streaming revenue accounted for
about 2% of the German music market last year. Unsurprisingly, physical CD
sales continue to fall (by 5.4 % in the first half of 2012), however CDs still
account for 72 % of overall revenue.
To this blogger the small revenue attributed to
downloads compared to CDs is indicative of illegal file sharing, but perhaps the
Germans are just a CD loving nation?
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