RIAA legal action prompts widespread PC music wiping

But while the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) may hail this as a victory, the NPD Group survey showed that people's opinion of the music industry has never been lower.

The number of US households getting digital music using peer to peer sharing fell by 11 per cent between August and September, the organisation claimed. And the number of music files downloaded fell by nine per cent.

The survey showed that the lawsuits initiated by the RIAA against consumers had persuaded two out of three consumers that they had a "much more" or "somewhat more" negative opinion of record companies. And that's not just people who download music - 40 per cent of people who hadn't downloaded music felt the same.

The NPD claimed that its Music Watch Digital information uses a balanced sample of 40,000 online panellists.