Specifically, Oberholzer-Gee and Strumpf review some of the latest studies related to file sharing and music and bust some of the myths that the music industry is still pushing, including the idea that every download equals a lost sale. One study, for example, examined the iPod listening habits of 5,600 consumers and concluded that only 64% of the songs on these players had ever been played. It's unlikely that these users would have paid for the songs they never played.

The two researchers also argue that the fact that music was basically available for free increased a lot of consumer's willingness to buy MP3 players in the first place. According to another study, 65% of respondents said that they did no buy a CD because they had downloaded a free copy of a song, but at the same time 80% said that they bought a CD because they had sampled it.

In addition, the authors argue that mashups are likely to drive consumers to the original recordings and don't necessarily lead to lost sales either.

Number of Recordings has Doubled Since 2000

Oberholzer-Gee's and Strumpf's focus is not so much on whether or not the music industry is loosing money because of file sharing, but whether file sharing has deterred the production of music. While there are lots of arguments about the financial losses the music industry might or might not have incurred from file sharing, the production of music is clearly up (the number of recordings produced has doubled since 2000), and so is the demand for concert tickets (and the price of these tickets). As for films, even in countries where piracy is rampant (including South Korea, India, China), as well as in the U.S., the number of yearly film productions has only increased in the last couple of years.

This study, of course, comes as a crucial moment in the file sharing debate, as the Thomas vs. Capitol case is entering its final days (our report from earlier today). There, the music industry and the court are still working under the assumption that every copy is a lost sale.

If you have some spare time and an interest in this topic, you should definitely have a look at this paper. It's actually quite readable - especially for an academic paper by two economists - and short.

CC-licensed logo image used courtesy of Flickr user Rev Dan Catt.

A major problem that plagued the release of Spore was the inclusion of a DRM system. This has caused multiple reviews of Spore to be disappointing for Electronic Arts (EA), the developing and publishing company of Spore. If EA hoped the problem would go away, it hasn't. Fans and "pirates" have taken things one step further to make Spore one of the most pirated games ever.

The DRM system included in Spore has caused an outrage in the gaming community. We stated in our review of the game that the DRM system would have to go if Spore wanted to succeed. Apparently, consumers of the game seem to feel the same way. As of today, Spore has been downloaded over 500,000 times on various bittorrent sites and doesn't look to be slowing down. The first 300,000 downloads of Spore happened after just one day of the game being released. These pirated versions of Spore remove the DRM system that users encounter when installing the game. While it's not uncommon for popular games to hit those type of numbers on P2P sites, it's unusual for it to happen so quickly. Currently, the game has been the most popular download all week on The Pirate Bay, one of the most popular and controversial bittorrent sites around.

DRM is Not the Answer

The Sims 2 currently holds the record for the most pirated game. Pirates and disappointed fans are looking to change that. According to the TorrentFreak blog,

[Spore's] download rate exceeds that of any other pirated game in history, and in a week or two from now it will be the most pirated game ever on BitTorrent.

Spore is still one of the worst rated games on Amazon. Since its release it has been given a rating of only 1 star by more than 50% of its reviewers. The majority of these ratings address problems with the DRM system. DRM is not the answer and continues to provoke "pirates" to release what publishers should have given to customers from the beginning.

There's no doubt that Spore would've been pirated regardless of the DRM system. However, users of P2P networks are now encouraging others to pirate the game in order to teach EA a lesson. A commenter on the Pirate Bay known as "deathkitten" stated,

"You have the power to make this the most pirated game ever, to give corporate bastards a virtual punch in the face."

The survey was released along with a new website at mybytes.com ("They're MY bytes, not yours!") and a newly announced curriculum for middle and high schools to teach the Microsoft economic and political agenda. “Intellectual Property Rights Education" is the innocuous name of the Microsoft provided curriculum materials.

• Almost half of the teenagers surveyed (49 percent) said they are not familiar with the rules and guidelines for downloading images, literature, music, movies and software from the Internet.


• Only one in 10 (11 percent) said they understood the rules “very well.”


• Among teenagers who said they were familiar with the laws, more than eight in 10 (82 percent) said illegal downloaders should be punished. In contrast, slightly more than half (57 percent) of those unfamiliar with the laws said violators should be punished.

The MyBytes Site

MyBytes is a charming site where young people can remix their own, newly copyrighted ringtones and watch short video interviews with good kids and a couple of bad kids having IP revelations.

To be fair, the remixed ringtones can have one of four licenses attached to them, including unrestricted, unrestricted use without remixing and two variations of for sale. It's a ways from Creative Commons, but it's interesting.

There's one tepid perspective mildly critical of the copyright regime on the site. It's pretty remarkable and it's coming to a school near you.

Teaching the Children

The survey indicates that kids learn more about copyright from their parents than from anywhere else. So if you've got kids in school, make sure they know that other perspectives exist on sites like CreativeCommons, CopyFight.Corante.com and Genetic Resources Action International - Grain.org - because this issue extends beyond music and movies to include debates over IP law in genetics, agriculture, cultural tradition and more.