Washington Post's Cynthia Webb surveys news media comments on the "Artists, Musicians and the Internet" study results released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. While the majority of music artists agree that unauthorized P2P file sharing should be illegal, they also agree it poses at best a minor threat to them. Webb links to articles in the New York Times, Wired and others. Musicians Sing Different Tune on File Sharing (washingtonpost.com).
Such studies are consistent with theories that the Internet is less a threat to producers of goods and services (individual artists, for example) and more of a threat to intermediaries, (the record distribution industry, for example) and their ability to control distribution, create artificial scarcities and thereby create opportunities for "rent-seeking" behavior.
Other featured Pew reports online include:
The Pew Internet Project (PIP) also provides a summary of "Surprising, Strange and Wonderful Data" from a presentation made in November to the 10th Anniversary of the World Wide Web Consortium.
Posted by dougsimpson at December 7, 2004 05:37 AM | TrackBack