Piercing P2P Myths — The Canadian Perspective
Slashdot ran a great article yesterday about a recent paper from Canadian professor of law Michael Geist, which systematically examines the recent extravagant loss claims of the Canadian record industry, and emerges with the conclusion that P2P filesharing had little, if any, actual impact on the income of the artists themselves, and that many other factors were to blame.
Many of the principles discussed in the paper hold true for other parts of the world (especially the USA). Additionally, it’s full of great quotes:
“Although loath to discuss the matter publicly, according to an October 2004 Economist article, an internal music label study found that between 2/3 and 3/4 of recent sales declines had nothing to do with Internet music downloads.”
“Given the tens of millions of dollars that the Canadian government spends annually to support the creation of Canadian music, it is apparent that the relative impact of lost royalties due to file-sharing pales by comparison.”
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