Does DRM Really Work?

Subject: Does DRM Really Work?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 17 Oct 12 - 05:14 AM

Fuel for the fire about copyright "protections" comes from a recent report. Credentials for the authors are sort of vague to me, but maybe someone else here can comment on whether it means much.

File-sharers buy more music than non-file-sharers, says study

Suzanne Choney, NBC News
16 October 2012

The American Assembly

It seems counterintuitive, but a new study says that file-sharing music lovers in the U.S. also buy more music than their non-file-sharing counterparts.

The finding comes in a report, "Copy Culture in the USA and Germany," from The American Assembly, which describes itself as a non-partisan public affairs forum, affiliated with Columbia University.

In the U.S., the average music file collection is 1,444 songs, the group says. File-sharers in the U.S. have "roughly 37 percent" larger music collections than non-file-sharers, and "predictably, most of the difference comes from higher levels of 'downloading for free' and 'copying from friends/family.' "

But, file sharers also have "significantly higher legal purchases of digital music than their non-P2P using peers — around 30 percent higher among US P2P users," wrote Joe Karaganis of the Social Science Research Council, which worked on the report.

"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."

The Recording Industry Association of America declined to comment on the study, but did refer NBC News to The NPD Group, which has done its own research on the issue.

"We hear this argument all the time and it makes no sense," Russ Crupnick, NPD's senior vice president, industry analysis, said in a phone interview.

"Peer-to-peer users tend to be younger and more Internet-savvy, so the likelihood that would be buying digital files makes perfect sense. But you can't compare that to the entire population," he said. "Sixty percent of the population is over the age of 35, so you're kind of comparing peer-to-peer users with Baby Boomers who buy much, much less music."

In a report last March, NPD said 13 percent of Internet users downloaded music from a P2P (peer-to-peer) site, which is down from a high of 19 percent in 2006, largely because of "industry efforts to combat illegal file sharing, and increased options for listening and downloading legally," Crupnick said at that time.

Aram Sinnreich, an assistant professor at Rutgers University's School of Communication and Information, and author of the book,"The Piracy Crusade: How the Music Industry's War on Sharing Destroys Markets and Erodes Civil Liberties," has yet another take on the issue.

He told NBC News via email he believes that P2P music sharing tends to "spur individual and communal interest in music, which increases awareness and interest in making purchases — of recordings, merchandise, event tickets and so forth."

[end snip]

Flip your own coin to decide which side of this argument is closest to truth and beauty.

John

Subject: RE: Does DRM Really Work?
From: Howard Jones
Date: 17 Oct 12 - 08:07 AM

All this really says is that music fans have bigger music collections, which they acquire through a variety of sources. It's fairly obvious that people interested in music will buy more than those who aren't, and it's also obvious that they will download more. The report could equally be headlined "People who buy music are the biggest pirates".

The implication is that filesharing encourages people to buy more music but I don't think it demonstrates that.

Subject: RE: Does DRM Really Work?
From: ripov
Date: 17 Oct 12 - 01:19 PM

Unless you've more money than sense, you don't buy a CD (especially at inflated GB prices) on spec. So you listen (for free) before you buy. makes perfect sense.
For the grown ups whose social life is restricted compared to a teenager's, there is less chsnce of hearing new music in a social setting, only on radio/tv or the net.
These same media companies are not happy to have their output advertised for free on the net, and yet spend tens of thousands to have their output played on radio and tv programmes, and hope we listen to them and buy the music!
Not a new phenomenon anyway, remember Radio Luxemburg and the twin cassette recorder!
But I'd sooner hear live music anyway. (well, sometimes)