Last year Guy Hands suggested that membership of trade body IFPI cost EMI and other labels $250m a year, and insisted that it cut its costs or EMI were out. Now it looks like Hands has won the battle. According to Reuters:

A spokesman for the IFPI, which also looks to safeguard the rights of record producers and expand the commercial use of music, said it had agreed a “sensible, appropriate and reasonable reduction in our budget.”

So EMI will be contributing less money to the fight against piracy. “We undertook to work with our colleagues in the other major labels and with (IFPI boss) John Kennedy on a cost saving plan for the IFPI,” said Jean-Francois Cecillon, president of EMI Music International Labels. “Together we have been able to find solutions which we believe are achievable whilst maintaining what the IFPI does best in representing our industry.”

Is this a sign that the fight against piracy is winding down? Let us know your thoughts.