Gordon Lightfoot Forums - View Single Post - p2p file sharing has negligible effect on sales

Auburn Annie · 04-01-2004, 12:34 PM

The latest study making the rounds on this (see all 52 pages at http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/Fil..._March2004.pdf )is by Felix Oberholzer of the Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of UNC Chapel Hill.

As Glenn Reynolds writes "Their conclusion: "Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero." Or again, "even in the most pessimistic specification, five thousand downloads are needed to displace a single album sale."

This economic study confirms what many have suspected for a long time. The effects of p2p sharing on the demand for a product are many. Some are negative. Free content can cannibalize proprietary content. Some are positive. Free content can spur demand for that, or related content...."

04-01-2004, 12:34 PM	#1
Auburn Annie Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Upstate New York Posts: 3,101	The latest study making the rounds on this (see all 52 pages at http://www.unc.edu/~cigar/papers/Fil..._March2004.pdf )is by Felix Oberholzer of the Harvard Business School and Koleman Strumpf of UNC Chapel Hill. As Glenn Reynolds writes "Their conclusion: "Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero." Or again, "even in the most pessimistic specification, five thousand downloads are needed to displace a single album sale." This economic study confirms what many have suspected for a long time. The effects of p2p sharing on the demand for a product are many. Some are negative. Free content can cannibalize proprietary content. Some are positive. Free content can spur demand for that, or related content...."