The sky is falling on the music industry - pick the decade can we can tell you what technology is being blamed for killing an industry that by its own accounts should have been dead in 1985. But there is some good news it appears - the Australian music industry, headed by by the ARIA, posted its first successful year since 2003.

Like many industrialized nations such as France and the UK, Australia! is grappling with two very thorny but related issues: forcing ISPs to cooperate with rights holders to thwart unauthorized file-sharing, and instituting a 'three strikes' policy against repeat offenders. The goal of this intended policy is reduce the overall financial impact that unmitigated file-sharing has supposedly wrought. But guess what?

The ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) posted its sales figures for 2009 - and while they aren't magnificent, they are showing some signs of positive growth. Sales aren't being driven by the CD of course, but by digital music.

"...wholesale revenues over the full year increased almost 5% when compared to 2008. An increase in overall digital revenues was the key contributing factor to this growth, with digital albums demonstrating an increase of over 60% by revenue, more than offsetting the relatively modest decline in physical CD sales..."

What's remarkable about this report is that only one week prior, Australian ISP iiNet emerged victorious in its ongoing legal battle with rights holders. Australian Federation Against Copyright Theft (AFACT) had tried to hold the ISP responsible for the potentially infringing uses of its consumers, but a Federal court ruled they bore no such responsibility. This had the effect of returning the copyright debate in Australia back to square one and we don't expect to see ISPs getting involved in the entertainment industry's problems any time soon.

By the ARIA's own words, the "...consumers continued to demonstrate their growing adoption and acceptance of the digital music format..." That's great news for the ARIA, and perhaps indicates that there's enough room on the internet for both the music industry to thrive without driving a stake through personal freedoms.

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