If you've had your ear to the 'Net recently, then you've probably heard about the report commissioned by the Dutch government that finds an overall benefit to society from P2P file sharing. The story was originally broken by TorrentFreak, who obviously loves the news. But as you would expect the story is spreading and people are starting to pick it apart.
The folks at Digital Music News have this to say:
In reality, file-swapping is mostly a free-for-all. But the report asserted that the broader impact on society was positive, based on the argument that consumers gain more than what labels and other stakeholders lose. The report also rebuffs the claim that file-sharing leads to lost sales at a one-to-one ratio, a method sometimes used by the content industry to calculate overall piracy losses.
Why is all this important? For one thing, the report originates from the public sector. This makes the report arguably less biased than were it to come from the RIAA or The Pirate Bay. Secondly, like the DMN quote above states, the report emphasizes less the one-to-one ratio between a file downloaded and a file sold, and more the broader effect of the service on society. Bottom line: sharing makes us better.
You can read the original report here, but you'll have some trouble--unless you know Dutch, that is.
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