IFPI report pirated

Torrentfreak has obtained a leaked IFPI report addressing the organisation’s global anti-piracy strategy.

The 30-page report makes for interesting reading, flagging up the usual P2P suspects but throwing in a bit of a twist by pointing up that another potential threat takes the form of hackers targeting artist and management accounts to access unreleased music.

The body is apparently monitoring the App Store and Google Marketplace and focusing on “quick take down agreements” with Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Palm to remove applications that facilitate piracy and shut down revenue streams to sites hosting unauthorised content, working with payment processors.

Of course, last week Google hit the headlines for more or less saying ‘Hey, music industry, we hate piracy- we are just like you guys and want to eradicate this scourge off the face of Google’s Earth. Now lets all sit back, relax and Google ‘Download music’. Look- nothing comes up apart from iTunes and one of those daft anti pirate bay images that you're all so fond of. What Google ads on Torrent Sites? Don’t be evil’.

What Google UK policy manager Theo Bertram actually said on BBC’s Newsnight last week was: “When people tell us ‘That’s my content on that page’, we remove the page quickly – we do that nearly 2 million times every month. But our research shows however much you do on filtering or blocking, what is much more effective is to go after the money – to remove the financial underpinnings, the advertising, the payment processes."

Bertram went on to say that Google were: “Pro-freedom of expression and anti-piracy”. As far as pie charts go, the one in the leaked IFPI report is fairly interesting as it reveals that Megaupload is only in seventh position, with sites such as Filesonic and Wupload actually having a much bigger impact.

The IFPI concludes the report by stressing the importance of co-operation, partnerships and information exchange” and to work with legal bodies to “provide training built around ‘real world’ experiences and challenges rather than focusing on theory.”