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Norwegian study claims that internet pirates buy more music than honest jons
21 Apr 2009 | 11.56 Europe/London
No sooner have the Pirate Bay bad boys been found guilty of breaking copyright law than a report comes out claiming that eyepatch-wearing internet bandits may not be the freeloading bastards that some people claim they are. After studying the habits of 1,900 internet users, a Norwegian business school claims that 15- to 20-year-olds au fait with the dark arts of P2P filesharing also buy more music than their P2P-free counterparts.
This backs up a study commissioned by the Canadian branch of the RIAA, North America's copyright agency, which claimed in 2006 that P2P file-sharers bought more music than the record labels wanted to admit. Might it be possible, it continued, that there was another reason why people weren't buying as much music as they used to?
Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten got on the blower to an EMI lackey. Did this blow the record companies' theory that piracy, and piracy alone, was responsible for falling sales? "There is one thing that is not going away," said Bjorn Rogstad of the music behemoth, "and it is that the consumption of music increases, while revenue declines. It can not be explained in any way other than that the illegal downloading is over the legal sale of music." So, nothing to do with changing buying habits, then, Bjorn?
Ars Technica
This backs up a study commissioned by the Canadian branch of the RIAA, North America's copyright agency, which claimed in 2006 that P2P file-sharers bought more music than the record labels wanted to admit. Might it be possible, it continued, that there was another reason why people weren't buying as much music as they used to?
Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten got on the blower to an EMI lackey. Did this blow the record companies' theory that piracy, and piracy alone, was responsible for falling sales? "There is one thing that is not going away," said Bjorn Rogstad of the music behemoth, "and it is that the consumption of music increases, while revenue declines. It can not be explained in any way other than that the illegal downloading is over the legal sale of music." So, nothing to do with changing buying habits, then, Bjorn?
Ars Technica