Music sites suffer 'widespread' ring-tone theft

A third of US and European music websites are vulnerable to ring-tone theft, according to a study by content software specialists Qpass.

The company estimates that such theft has cost the mobile and music industries £22m since early 2004, and will cost £82m by 2007.

The study of 100 sites found that many allow previews of music that can be used as a ring-tone because they are unsecured. By taking advantage of preview files, users are able to "shoplift" tracks and download them as free ring-tones.

Of the 100 sites tested 66 per cent offered preview files of between 15-30 seconds.

Steve Shivers, senior vice president at Qpass, said: "This is like test driving a car and not giving it back. It is a complete oversight by the mobile and music industries."

The ring-tone market currently accounts for six to10 per cent of the music industry's revenues, according to Jupiter Research. Qpass estimates that 20 per cent of mobile users worldwide have downloaded content to their mobile phone.

Duncan Cheadle, sales director at Urban Mobile, said: "It is possible to do this from some websites.

"But it is easily prevented by building a Flash player that plays music on the browser and allows the ring-tone to be previewed but hides the source of music from the user preventing it from being downloaded."