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Legal action against music downloads has mixed impact

By The Associated Press

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But the overall percentage of people who say they do so has inched back up since November, the Pew Internet and American Life Project said yesterday.

A third of the former downloaders say they stopped because of the highly publicized lawsuits filed by the recording industry against more than 1,000 users.

Men and users ages 18-29 were the ones most likely to stop, the survey finds.

The study does not distinguish between illegal downloads and songs bought through authorized sites such as iTunes. Seventeen percent of the current downloaders did say they use paid services, though not necessarily exclusively.

Some 38 percent of those who download said they do it less because of the lawsuits.

Nonetheless, the random study in February finds that 18 percent of Internet users say they download music over the Net, up from 14 percent in a pre-Christmas survey.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company