Inget samband fildelning – minskad försäljning

Music Lessons 1

Music Lessons är en undersökning och rapportserie från KTH som gjordes 2005 och i den första rapportdelen, Technology versus usage and effects, står följande sammanfattning av dess innehåll (den är publicerad på engelska):

In order to defend established business models for the distribution of music, the major record companies have done their utmost to hinder the development of P2P networks, by means of

• Having activities of firms offering P2P services or technology declared illegal, on the grounds that their major purpose is to encourage people to ignore copyright laws. Napster was closed. At the time of writing, April 2005, the jury is still out as regards the case of Kazaa /Altnet (Australia) and Grokster (USA).
• Investing heavily in lobbying politicians and legislators in support of their claim that file- sharing is stealing, and that there is a direct causal link to falling CD sales and lay-offs.
• Commissioning companies to pollute the Internet with ”spoof” files, but at the same time, becoming more and more dependent on eavesdropping in P2P networks (”sniffing”) for planning marketing strategies based on P2P users’ preferences.
• Mounting legal attacks on individual file-sharers and demanding considerable sums of money in out of court settlements.

Smaller record companies and creators, on the other hand, see these new forms of customer interaction as a marketing opportunity for the unknown creator, developing business models that use the unregulated Internet to create a fan base amongst potential future consumers.

Available data does not support a direct link between file sharing and diminishing music sales. Econometric studies have not been able to find any significant effects. User studies, however, identify a relatively small group who say that they buy less music but the majority, 80 – 85 % of the down-loaders, maintain that their purchases remain the same or more.

Music file sharing can then not explain the drop in CD sales from 2000 and thereafter. What was witnessed was an effect of the change of music format from CD to MP3; the music industry was too late and not sensitive enough to make a response to this change. Today, in April 2005, there are many opportunities to download and pay for music (MP3) online and the sales are up again in many territories. A significant observation is that concert/touring business has been growing dramatically since file sharing became popular.

The strategies of the major content owners have driven software P2P development in the direction of networks which offer participants ever greater degrees of anonymity. The tarnished reputation of P2P technology stemming from content owners’ attacks could hinder the wider potential of this technology in many other areas than those involving the mere swapping of audio- and audiovisual files. Some of the music industry rhetoric and strategies could actually do more to harm than to support the cause of copyright, as regards acceptance in society as a whole.

Det som är intressant att observera är att man inte kunnat konstatera något samband mellen fildelning och minskad försäljning. Därmed torde de skadeståndsanspråk som olika bolag har på The Pirate Bay vara totalt falska och totalt överdrivna. Man konstaterar också att artister spelar mer live och dett har ökat i takt med fildelningen.

Samtidigt kan vi också se hur det gått med tidigare försök att stoppa fildelning. Branschen har stängt ner nätverk efter nätverk, Napster, Kazaa, Grokster ochd et har av allt att döma inte förändrat nånting, Det samma kommer att bli resultatet av rättegången mot The Pirate Bay. Nada. Ingenting.

Intressant?
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