File Sharing and CD Sales, Again

Andrew Leonard writes "Stan Liebowitz, an economist studying the effects of file-trading on the music industry, says in an article in Salon that new numbers have convinced him that the decline in CD sales may be partially attributable to MP3 downloading. But he also argues that the decline does not justify draconian new laws."

Comments

this is so easy to prove!

[Dr. Awktagon]

You need 1) a time machine, 2) ability to access to the many-worlds multiverse, and 3) access to the album sale data.

Just set your time machine back to sometime before Fanning writes the first Napster code. Then, choose a universe where he falls madly in love with a lovely blonde, and gets rid of "that stupid computer" at her request. Monitor CD sales for the next couple of years.

Next, choose the current universe (or maybe one exactly like this one, except where nobody thought of this experiment, just in case there's some weird time looping feedback thing going on). Monitor CD sales for the same period.

Then, you'll be able to say if Napster and file sharing affected the music industry, all other things being equal.

I swear, I bet these so-called "economists" can't even change the gravitational constant of the universe!

Re:Might it possibly be....?

[kc0dby]

(7) Reffering their customers pirates and thieves.

Hey, just because the search feature on slashdot doesn't recognize two letter words doesn't mean you don't have to......

(7) Reffering to their customers as pirates and thieves.

I am not a dang "grammatical error junkie" ! I just put 2 and 2 together.....