They say MP3 piracy runs rampant on the Net.
That could easily change, if Dave Powell, managing director of England's Copyright Control Services gets his way.
CCS tracks, documents, and shuts down Internet sites and communication channels containing illegal files.
"We are just starting to work on MP3," said Powell. "We've been advising the [International Federation of the Phonographic Industry] for a year now. We're into 5,000 sites shut down in a year."
The bulk of that work has been on contract with pro audio software companies, who hire the firm to get pirated copies of their applications off the Net. Only a fraction of their efforts have been on behalf of music publishers going after MP3 pirates.
But of the 5,000 sites Powell said CCS has shut down so far, 500,000 pieces of software have been removed -- using " a very small, but very proactive, hard-hitting, and focused team."
There's a screaming demand for that kind of effectiveness in the fight against pirated music, Powell believes. His company hopes to sell the industry on the idea.
"We have no real competition," Powell said. "There's no combination of technology, strategy, fast-track relationship with ISPs."
The company's bag of tricks starts with frequent monitoring of what the company says are hotspots for pirates in Internet venues. Some of them are little known or understood by most people in the industry. These channels include users of Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Usenet discussion groups, the semi-underground Hotline server and file-transfer software.
When they find pirate activity, the company moves to identify the pirate's Internet locale -- the ISPs and servers pirates are using. The next step is the keystone of the CCS approach: open doors at ISPs and hosting services that get an account quashed before the pirating even ramps up.
The company has "fast-track" relationships with 1,000 ISPs worldwide, Powell said. "That's all we do is work in a cooperative manner -- and the ISP relies on us."
He says the system is extremely efficient compared to ongoing efforts by groups like the IFPI and the Recording Industry Association of America.
"You've got the RIAA going out and suing ISPs -- everything gets bogged down as lawyers talk to one another. What we're saying [is] as long as you act quickly, we aren't even interested in suing."
But the record industry groups are content for now with their own methods, launching antipiracy campaigns to stop their antagonists.
The RIAA thinks the approach is satisfactory. Spokeswoman Susan Lewis said the group has filed civil suits against five pirates, and that doesn't amount to simply suing everybody in sight. "Our main approach is a shutdown letter -- cease and desist letters ... and we shut down hundreds of sites a week."
But Powell maintains that there are major short- and long-term gains for the record industry if they rethink that position. Copyright abuse is accelerating and cutting deep into industry profits.
"To the music business, we are the essential component that makes [the digital music copy-protection scheme] SDMI successful.
SDMI, or the Secure Digital Music Initiative, seeks to build technology into digital music files and players that keeps them from being illegally copied. Powell said if it's to have any hope of succeeding in the marketplace, an antipiracy approach must complement SDMI. Consumers with the choice of paying for legal music or downloading it free will often choose the latter, he said.
But what about the notion of anti-piracy police monitoring favorite communications channels on behalf of the music industry? Doesn't that amount to a kind of Big Brotherism?
"It's a difficult balance, because obviously their goal is to protect people who's copyright had been infringed, and they're doing that in what seems like public spaces," said Austin Hill, president of Zero Knowledge Systems.
"Laws [against illegal monitoring of communications] establish what governments can and can't do. Those rules don't necessarily apply when it comes to a corporation," Hill said.
"Where government agents have to get warrants and show proof, all companies like CCS have to do is allege something, and they can get information on pirates from ISPs."
All activity against pirates is both ethical and legal, Powell said. "I can't think of single ISP we talked to that has ever volunteered or given up a person's information. They've all turned around and said 'Give us the proper documents.'"
Even so, Hill thinks the solution, which could easily be undermined by technically adept -- and tricky -- pirates, isn't the most practical in the long run.
"I think there are a lot better ways to protect copyrights," he said. Those include watermarking and protection systems, like the proposed SDMI.
"To say we're going to monitor everyone who fits profile of a copyright infringer -- it seems like a solution now, but might have some consequences down the road. IP infringement is becoming a new way to silence people -- it can be used as a justification to take away people's privacy."
