A third of all compact discs sold are pirated, says study

ONE in three compact discs sold worldwide last year was pirated, with sales totalling $4.6 billion (€3.8bn), an industry group said yesterday.

In a record 31 countries, fake recordings now outsell legal ones, the International Federation of Phonographic Industries said in its annual report.

The bootleg industry is growing in Latin America, India, the Middle East and eastern Europe, it said, although some countries are cracking down on copyright theft by shutting down illegal recording facilities. A record number of them - with annual capacity for 380 million discs - were knocked out of action last year, the study said.