Is Current Use of P2P Harmful?
•Argument for harm:
–~25% drop in music sales
–lots of P2P infringement
–surveys show downloads substitute for sales
•Argument against harm:
–some users sample works on P2P, buy later
–people mostly download things they wouldn’t buy, so no harm done
–other explanations for drop in music sales (some support from econometric studies)
–harm to © owners, but bigger benefit to others