Guess what, people do download from iTunes, didn’t ya know. In fact, there’s been over 3 billion downloads since the service began in 2003, and the music store should hit its 4 billionth sale sometime this year. That’s great news, it would appear, for the music industry, which has been in a global slump since 1999 - the same year Napster brought P2P technology to the mainstream.

However, not all is well in the land of the music industry. In fact, things haven’t improved all that much since Napster launched, and by all accounts, things have grown dramatically worse. In a yearly report published by the IFPI, 2007 proved to be a year of continuing turmoil. CD sales are down, increases in digital sales failed to offset losses, and the music industry is growing desperate. It’s no secret that the entertainment industry is sending out perhaps their last best hope in turning the tables against piracy – the ISP.

The ISP (Internet Service Provider) has been at center state in the online copyright wars since mid-2007. Protected by the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act), ISPs are protected by a safe harbor provision which grants immunity from any law breaking activity that may occur on their networks. Sounds great. Yet ISPs are being pressured into becoming copyright traffic cops, with juggernauts such as AT&T voluntarily absolving themselves of the protection of the DMCA. ISPs are also feeling the heat in Europe, as President Nicolas Sarkozy has created a “French Connection” of sorts between his government, ISPs and content providers. The agreement proposes that ISPs disconnect large scale uploaders, while developing and implementing filtering technologies.

The IFPI, in its 2008 Digital Music Report, recognizes that P2P and file-sharing technology is strong, is increasing in popularity, and is becoming more difficult to control. It’s been nearly 10 years since the inception of Napster, and the industry has attempted a myriad of solutions to the P2P problem. As pointed out by the IFPI’s study, there are cases of success. Whether these successes are a result of enforcement against P2P is another matter, however. The IFPI's study cites a dramatic increase in the number of authorized services, the number of licensed tracks, and the number of tracks sold. These increased are impressive; however, digital tracks have failed to offset the decline of the CD, as “first half” music sales for 2007 are down 9%.