Study Reveals: Piracy Does Not Hurt Music Industry

TNO, a Netherlands-based research company, stirred some waters through the publication of a 142-page PDF file of their recent research (in Dutch). From a fragment which TechDirt managed to translate we learn that the essential information of the study is that illegal file sharing not only does not cause record industry the huge losses they claim it does but it actually has a positive effect on the whole.

The results TNO present are in line with what many have been saying all this time. Moreover, they confirm a recent ruling in Virginia, where Judge James P. Jones found that “customers who download music and movies for free would not necessarily spend money to acquire the same product,” which would translate like this – pirates are not likely to buy the music or movies they’re illegally shring anyway, so where are the losses in that? Plus that, in many case pirates come across music and artists (they would probably not discover had not been for the piracy) they can grow to love and purchase.

"The economic effects of file sharing short- and long term are strongly positive" [Interesting approach here: They give the well-being of people also economic value...]
"With regards to the music business we can say that downloaded recordings are not necessarily a lost sale"
"Lots of people download for free to learn about new music and eventually buy when they like it"
"The calculations of the industry [about the losses caused by illegal downloads] are not necessarily correct because they are based on a lot of assumptions and contain a lot of uncertainties because underlying data is not known with any accuracy"
(So far we were still only on page 3)
"Downloading goes hand in hand with buying"
"Among downloaders of music and movies, the percentage of buyers is as high as among non-downloaders and with games the percentage of buyers is even higher"
"People that download music visit concerts more often and buy more merchandise"
"The practice of file sharing implicates that the producers [their definition is a bit vague here] need to change their business model"
"That is why innovation of the business model is now of the utmost urgency"

You can also try your Dutch with the original PDF release. (photo credit thinkdigit.com)