The argument has long been that music piracy leads to a massive loss of revenue when accumulated across the millions of songs downloaded illegally. That’s what groups like the RIAA have pushed for years. According to the American Assembly‘s upcoming Copy Culture Survey, however, that’s just not the case. As it turns out, those that pirate in the United States also purchase around 30% more music than those that don’t.
The American Assembly explains:
US P2P users have larger collections than non-P2P users (roughly 37% more). And predictably, most of the difference comes from higher levels of ‘downloading for free’ and ‘copying from friends/family.’
But some of it also comes from significantly higher legal purchases of digital music than their non-P2P using peers–around 30% higher among US P2P users. Our data is quite clear on this point and lines up with numerous other studies: The biggest music pirates are also the biggest spenders on recorded music.
Take that, RIAA.
(The American Assembly via TorrentFreak)
- For the first time, BitTorrent evidence will be tested in court
- Rutgers, Houston, and NYU top university BitTorrent list
- Downloading copyrighted material in Japan could land you two years in jail
