[PGCanada] General IP Issues: Geist on P2P

Jen Zed jenzed at gmail.com
Fri Apr 22 07:59:50 PDT 2005


Michael Hart sent me an interesting article by Michael Geist on the
real effect of P2P file copy and music industry revenues. The entire
article is at:

http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue10_4/geist/

Abstract:

Canada is in the midst of a contentious copyright reform with
advocates for stronger copyright protection maintaining that the
Internet has led to widespread infringement that has harmed the
economic interests of Canadian artists. The Canadian Recording
Industry Association (CRIA) has emerged as the leading proponent
of copyright reform, claiming that peer–to–peer file sharing has
led to billions in lost sales in Canada.

This article examines CRIA's claims by conducting an analysis of
industry figures. It concludes that loss claims have been greatly
exaggerated and challenges the contention that recent sales
declines are primarily attributable to file–sharing activities.
Moreover, the article assesses the financial impact of declining
sales on Canadian artists, concluding that revenue collected
through a private copying levy system already adequately
compensates Canadian artists for the private copying that occurs
on peer–to–peer networks.


Thanks, Michael!


jen.


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