Ny Teknik skriver om en studie av P2P gjord av forskare vid KTH.
Forskarna kallar sitt projekt “Music Lessons” – lärdomar av hur musikindustrin hanterat hotet från fildelarna.
En iakttagelse är att EU lämnar motstridiga budskap när det gäller användning av bredband, menar Lars-Erik Eriksson.
– Först förstärker man upphovsrätten kraftigt och ger skivbolagen ett kraftfullt verktyg för att avskräcka från alltför fri användning av internet, sen uppmuntrar man till ökad användning av bredband för att bygga framtidens Europa.
Påminner en del om ett inlägg hos Copyriot, Microsoft regleras åt två håll samtidigt.
Studien finns här [pdf] och ingår i ett större projekt som heter Music Lessons.
Key observations from the report
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 filesharing 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.
Se också det här inlägget för information om en annan studie.
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