Copyright Enforcement in the Digital Age: Empirical Evidence and Policy Implications

THE CORRELATION BETWEEN the rise of Internet-based piracy(a) and drops in revenue from media sales has made online copyright infringement a hotly debated topic in the media and technology industries. In the 10 years following Napster's introduction in 1999, global recorded music sales decreased 50%, despite having previously been on an upward trend.(16) Likewise, while DVD/VHS sales increased from 2000 to 2003, sales fell 27% in the four years after the widespread adoption of the BitTorrent protocol 2004.