P2P file sharing good for Big Music: Dutch study
p2pnet news view | P2P | Music:- A major Dutch study has thrown another huge spanner into Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG claims that online P2P file sharing is responsible for massive devastation within the corporate music industry.
When Vivendi Universal, EMI, Warner Music and Sony BMG’s RIAA won a ‘victory’ by scamming civil jury into awarding damages of almost a quarter of $1 million against Jammie Thomas, a single mother of two, for allegedly sharing music online, it made instant mainstream media headlines around the world.
In the decision, the Big 4 extortion unit scored because judge and jury had swallowed the false corporate music industry claim that files share equal massive losses in sales.
But when Michael Davis, the judge who oversaw the case, admitted he’d made a serious mistake in law, sending the case back for retrial, the headlines were conspicuously missing.
Similarly, when, in Tyler G. Newby, Trial Attorney, United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC; Randy Ramseyer, Assistant United States Attorney, Abingdon, Virginia; and Jay V. Prabhu, Assistant United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for the United States, against one man, Daniel Dove, judge James P. Jones wrote, “In this criminal copyright infringement case, I find that the government has failed to prove the amount of actual loss sustained by the victims and accordingly I am unable to require that the defendant pay restitution,” there was hardly a word in either the mainstream or online media.
But as p2pnet and others have said repeatedly, rather than being thieves and criminals, as they’re called by the RIAA and Big 4, the men, women and children around the world who share files are acting as unpaid advertisers for corporate product in a highly desired, and desirable, event called viral marketing.
Wreaking havoc with sales
In 2007, a Canadian federal government study, “finally and irrevocably demolished their claims that file sharing is wreaking havoc with sales and, in the process, throwing thousands of helpless support workers onto the streets,” said p2pnet, continuing »»»
Among other things, downloading the equivalent of approximately one CD increases [our emphasis] purchasing by about half of a CD, says the study, from Industry Canada.
It`s the first on P2P file-sharing which analyzes, original and representative microeconomic survey data from the Canadian population.
Also, We find evidence that purchases of other forms of entertainment such as cinema and concert tickets, and video games tend to increase with music purchases, say its authors, University of London researchers Birgitte Andersen and Marion Frenz.
Yesterday we ran a post carrying a supposed formula which would allow the Big $ to assess exactly how much they’d lose will each filesharing.
It was a joke but, “Hi Jon,” said Nicolas from Holland in Reader’s Write, “There is a report just out in The Netherlands where three research organisations have researched the question if downloading music, movies etc by P2P means that people don`t buy any music or movies. Basically their findings conclude that it may have some negative effect on corporate earnings but it has a positive effect on the economy and prosperity of the people.”
Nicolas provided the url to the original article in Dutch – http://www.tno.nl/content.cfm?context=overtno&content=nieuwsbericht&laag1=37&laag2=2&item_id=2009-01-16%2012:57:23.0.
In another comment post, “Nicolas and Jon, here is a Slashdot post on this http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/19/1440254,” said Paulus in a comment.
It’s brief, but considerably more comprehensible than theGoogle translation.
Posted on Slashdot by an anonymous source, it reads »»»
In a study conducted by TNO for the Dutch government the economic effects of filesharing are found to be positive. According to the 146 page report (available for download, but in Dutch) filesharing is good for the prosperity of the Dutch: with filesharing more media are available, even though this costs the media industry some profit.
One of the most noticeable conclusions is that downloading and buying are not mutually exclusive: downloaders on average buy just as much music as non-downloaders, but they buy more DVDs and games then people who don’t download.
They also tend to visit more concerts and buy more merchandise.
You’ll note the conclusions are almost identical to those arrived at by the Canadian team.
Says neowin.net »»»
According to a study done by the Dutch government, file-share-sharing has a positive effect on the economy – not only in the short-term, but in the long-term as well.
The study yield a 142-page report that looks at both the economic and cultural effects that file-sharing has on the music, movie and gaming industry. The report estimates that the positive effect on the Dutch economy is around 100 million Euros a year. It also recognizes that the entertainment industry suffers some losses, but not enough to blanket the benefits.
The researchers noted: File-sharing gives people access to a wide range of cultural goods and is often used to sample content that is bought later, the report concluded. Most file-sharers would have never bought the content they downloaded, but having access to such a large media library increases the welfare of Dutch citizens.
Once again, not a mumblin’ word from the lamescream media.
Stay tuned.
Jon Newton – p2pnet
January , 2009
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January 21st, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Surprise, surprise..
not really.
Looks like everything they say they say these days get shut down.
How long until these beasts keel over?