Based on the information in their first Online Music Report of 2004, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry is happy with the progress made thus far in educating the public on the illegality of breaking copyright law. From their (motivationally suspect but well documented) surveys, "an average of 66% of people across [Germany, France, UK, & Denmark] know that file-swapping without permission of the copyright holder is illegal, and an average of 54% of consumers surveyed support legal action being taken against infringers." While still agreeing with the RIAA that lawsuits against file-sharers are beneficial (and spend half of their report talking about fighting piracy with these and similar methods), they tend to emphasize more positive solutions, such as educational/informational sites like www.pro-music.org and the need for higher quality legitimate downloadable music sources. Not to be seen as weak on crime, however, they let us know that "the industry will use litigation internationally where necessary, as it has done in the US."
The report contains, among other well-formatted and fairly interesting charts and graphs, a whitewashed but still informative timeline of 2003 online music milestones (EMusic's purchase and subsequent descent into customer valuelessness is conveniently overlooked). They point to increases in availability and quality of legitimate online sources as a major contributor to the decrease of copyright law violations. Unlike American sources like the RIAA, however, the IFPI acknowledges failings of today's legal file-trading systems; they don't simply claim that illegal downloading is to blame for all music losses without taking into account the lack of widespread customer-friendly legal alternatives. They present examples of various pricing schemes and business plans, and credit changes such as increasing broadband coverage across the world for increases in legal download services and thereby increases in legal downloads. Their logical, if still clearly corporate take on downloading is refreshing to read, given the assault of blame placed exclusively on file-trading by the RIAA's PR machine.