According to a BBC news report, the music industry has (yet again) launched a “legal onslaught” against file-sharers. In one sense, I can understand why – a report by research firm XTN suggests that unauthorised downloading has increased by 3% to 28% of Internet users since last September. So we’re buying a lot more commercial downloads, but we’re also downloading a lot more bootleg stuff as well.

But the same report from XTN also tells us why people are continuing to share bootleg files rather than buying them. In no particular order, the main problems people have with the paid-for services are:

• High prices
• Restrictive DRM
• Incompatible formats
• Clunky, hard to use interfaces

The world’s most popular paid-for download service is, unsurprisingly, iTunes. Backed by Apple’s marketing clout and benefiting from the fact that iPods are as much a fashion accessory than a musical tool, they easily lead the way with 44% of the market. But the number two contender is one that many people may not have heard of, and one that the record companies hate: Russian-based AllOfMP3.com. And the reason they hate it is because AllOfMP3 are doing everything that customers want them to. The prices are reasonable, there’s no DRM and you can choose your own format. Is there a lesson there, or will the record companies continue to stick their corporate heads in the sand while the rest of the world passes them by?

Oh, and another thing. According to the BBC report, The British music industry says file-sharing has cost it £1.1bn over the last three years. But, according to the XTN report, album sales are static and paid-for downloads are up. CD single sales are down, but they’re loss-leaders anyway (and always have been). This means that the industry has had the opportunity to make more, not less, money from music over the past three years. So where has this mythical £1.1bn come from? Your guess is as good as mine. Like statistics, it would appear than 87% of record company figures are made up on the spot.