Downloading music

Across the world, CD sales are experiencing a slide for the fourth year. The total loss for publishers is more than a quarter their turnover. The music industry simply has one foot in the grave. Publishers blame free downloading on the Internet, thanks to copying programs like Kazaa or Morpheus. There are 100 million Internet users connected every day ... film copying is accessible and quick. It's Hollywood's turn to worry.

In the name of free access and freedom and social evolution, Internet users claim that free copying is legitimate, while hackers have fun breaking into protected information installed by publishers ....

The battle between Web-surfers and publishers is dangerous ... Publishers shouldn't be tempted to profit from the post 9/11 security worries and restrict freedoms ....

An agreement is possible which is based on cheap subscriptions, with rights of limiting CD copying, allowing just a few copies (for different uses by the family or in the car) or, more generally, a better system of sales ... Regarding Internet users, they have to acknowledge that information has a price and that pirating is theft. And that to defend the contrary is to kill Internet freedom.

-- Le Monde, Paris