June 23, 2005 (original story...)
MADRID (Reuters) - One in three music discs sold worldwide is a pirated copy in a $4.6 billion industry that is entrenched in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America, a study said on Thursday.
Pirate sales outnumber legitimate ones in 31 countries, the International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) said, with China representing the single largest market and Spain the worst abuser in Western Europe.
Already mauled by free song downloads from the Internet, the music industry is fighting a second front against more established piracy outfits where factories in developing countries crank out large quantities of chart-topping CDs.
A total of 1.2 billion pirate music discs were sold in 2004 -- 34 percent of all discs sold worldwide.
Growth in piracy, however, slowed to 2 percent -- its lowest level in five years, partly thanks to increased enforcement in Mexico, Brazil, Hong Kong, Paraguay and Spain.
In 2004, for the first time pirate discs outsold legitimate ones in Chile, the Czech Republic, Greece, India and Turkey, the global trade body said.
In Spain, piracy is worth an estimated $77 million and accounts for a quarter of all discs sold. Sales of recorded music in Spain have fallen by 32 percent since 2000, the report said.
"Spain was once a thriving legitimate music market known for the quality of its artists and the success of its music industry," said IFPI Chairman John Kennedy. "Today Spain is known for the most serious piracy problems in Europe and urgent action is needed to do something about it."
China has an estimated piracy rate of 85 percent with an illegal market worth $411 million a year, down slightly from 2003, the IFPI said.
Russia, Pakistan and Indonesia were among the largest exporters of pirated music.
