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In his introduction to the Commercial Piracy Report of 2005, John Kennedy, Chairman and CEO of the IFPI gave the raison d'etre of the global fight against music piracy.
"The music industry fights because if it did not, the music industry would quite simply not exist."
It's this that underpins the work of South Africa's music Anti Piracy Unit (RAPU), which was created by the Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA), the official body representing the IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industries) in South Africa.
- By buying pirate music you are supporting organised crime. In most countries a link between music piracy and organised crime exists; See Music piracy & Organised Crime
- A loss in income means a loss in jobs. Some major record companies have had to cut jobs worldwide, drop 20 percent of their recording artists and outsource their DVD and CD manufacturing, in part because of piracy;
- It discourages investment in South Africa if a company's intellectual property rights are not protected;
- The artists receive no reward for their creativity and are not able to make a living;
- The Government looses hundreds of millions of tax revenues;
- More money has to be spent on anti-piracy measures thereby influencing the price of sales.
The consequence for buyers of music is that the buyer receives a poor quality product, cannot return the disc if it is faulty and actually supports crime.
