CMU Daily http://www.theCMUwebsite.com report that dance music website Data Transmission recently surveyed 200 label execs, pluggers, publicists and producers about all things piracy and digital, and found that, while often not so vocal about these things, the independent dance sector is facing much of the same issues as the rest of the music industry.

While some dance labels that have traditionally sold more vinyl than CD may be slightly less badly hit by the boom in digital piracy in the last ten years, and despite certain niche dance download stores doing very well, just under 75% of those surveyed said they felt their businesses had been adversely affected by the growth of online piracy.

With regards solutions to the piracy problem, just over half backed the three-strikes system lobbied for by the major labels and some rock indies, which will theoretically see persistent file-sharers have their net connections suspended. However, more of those surveyed felt there were other ways that internet service providers and search services like Google could and should help content owners track and reduce online piracy.

In theory the non-three-strikes bit of the copyright section of the DEA (which was heavily watered down, of course), could be used to force those who run file-sharing services to make efforts to stop the transfer of illegal content via their systems. However, it is unlikely such legal pressure could be put onto ISPs and search engines under the current wording of the DEA.

Some search engines, of course, already operate 'takedown systems', usually based on their obligations under US copyright law. Asked by Data Transmission about such systems - where copyright owners can ask the likes of Google to remove links to illegal sources of their content - only 38% said they knew how said systems worked.

Despite their concern about rampant online piracy, most of those surveyed did obviously also recognise the potential of the internet as a sales and marketing tool. The survey specifically asked about the potential of services like Spotify. 44.2% said they thought they were beneficial, 15.6% damaging and 40.3% neither one or the other.

You can read the survey results and comments at: www.datatransmission.co.uk/Features/596/ <http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/Features/596/>