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Record official blames piracy for industry's woes in Pirate Bay testimony

26 Feb 2009

The music industry has lost more than 30% in sales since 2001 because of illegal downloading, a top industry official said Wednesday, giving evidence in a Swedish trial.

John Kennedy, the head of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, told the Stockholm District Court that Swedish site The Pirate Bay had become "the No. 1 source of illegal music", following court actions against two other popular file-sharing sites, Grokster and Kazaa.

"Over a period of time, piracy has done immense damage to the music industry," Kennedy said, adding that illegal Internet downloads had caused industry sales to tumble from US$27 billion in 2001 to $18 billion in 2008.

Read the full article here.