A survey of 200 music industry professionals has revealed a surprisingly relaxed attitude within the industry towards copyright-infringing acts such as illegal file-sharing.

The survey, carried out by music publications and promotion firm Immedia at the 6th Australian Music Business Conference, found that only 42 percent of respondents considered free music file sharing to be "a bad thing".

The result clashes with the position of the Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) which is adamant that online music piracy is destroying the music industry. ARIA-backed Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) has brought a number of cases involving alleged copyright infringement of music tracks to court this year, and the latest instance included the directors and an employee of the ISP which hosted a file-sharing site.

MIPI general manager Michael Speck focussed on the negative implications of the survey for copyright holders in an interview with ZDNet Australia. "The survey confirms the seriousness of downloading and CD burning that the music industry [association] has been speaking about for some time," Speck, said, referring to the high level of piracy, even amongst copyright holders.

Of the music industry participants surveyed, 45 percent admitted to downloading music, and half of these said they only downloaded music if it was free. 10 percent of respondents said they only used p2p technologies for free music, while 21 percent claimed they used p2p networks to sample music before purchasing the tracks.

Just over a quarter (27 percent) of those surveyed didn't regard downloading free music as theft. Of the remainder, 48 percent considered the practice to be stealing from the artist/composer, while 25 percent considered it to be stealing from record labels. On the subject of burning CDs, 57 percent considered the practice to be stealing from artists/composers, 29 percent considered it stealing from record labels while only 14 percent didn't think burning CDs was theft.

Level of CD burning amongst music industry participants in the past year: 0-5 -- 47% 5-10 -- 25% 10-20 -- 14% 20-50 -- 7% 50-100 -- 3% 100+ -- 4% Number of CDs purchased in the past year: 0-5 -- 24% 5-10 -- 21% 10-20 -- 25% 20-50 -- 21% 50-100 -- 5% 100+ -- 4% Source: Immedia!

However, 81 percent of those surveyed thought the Copyright Act should be changed to allow personal copying of CDs, although not for borrowed CDs or downloads. Forty-five percent favour a levy on recordable CDs, while 30 percent do not favour a levy and 25 percent consider a levy to be unworkable.

"Certainly the most controversial [results from the survey] were that people within the industry are against the current copyright laws that allow copying of games and software for backups and even certain portions of DVD by consumers who bought them, yet it was a criminal act to make a copy of music-whether from a vinyl album or CD-for personal use either as a backup copy, to make a tape or compilation CD for use in a car or portable application and even transferring CDs to a computer or onto a digital playback device such as an Apple iPod," said Phil Tripp, managing partner of Immedia.

"The results overwhelmingly confirmed that view with a vast majority believing that those people who support the music industry by buying music or owning their own albums, should have the right to transfer tunes to other playback media without breaking the law," said Tripp. "This is the case in the U.S. for example, called 'Fair Use' and in many other countries."

Speck disagreed. "The survey results don't go anywhere near allowing for the conclusion that a "home taping" provision should be enacted," he said. "This would simply make p2p piracy much easier than it is."

The survey also revealed that 54 percent of respondents had copied computer software without legally paying for it, and 26 percent had copied games without legally paying for them.

Of those surveyed, two percent said they did not have a role in the music industry, 42 percent were a musician or songwriter, 14 percent were a student, 16 percent were a manager, six percent were record company staff, six percent were media and 14 percent were 'other'.

"The people that attended this conference are the very people that beat a path to the antipiracy door when it's their copyright being downloaded or burnt," said Speck. "The two strongest strands that can be taken from the responses...is that people are OK with the idea [of music copying] as long as it's not their own copyright. That is both naïve and hypocritical."

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