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Economics of File-Sharing

Posted by michael on from the invisible-hand dept.

Umair writes "The Red Herring's got an article by me about the economics of file-sharing, which argues that the music industry should provide insurance...against itself. This is because the contract listeners sign with labels is risky - it lets labels shirk on their end of the bargain. That's why file-sharing isn't just 'theft', it's risk-sharing. The original, longer, version of the paper is here, which argues that this a situation economists call double moral hazard."

9 of 265 comments (clear)

  1. 14.4! by Aliencow · · Score: 5, Funny

    They should just pass a law to force everyone to use 14.4K modems unless you own the totality of the music owned by the RIAA members, and still have the original bill, of course.

    Or sue "teh interweb"

    1. Re:14.4! by Aliencow · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well they already tried to shutdown lyrics sites didn't they?
      I mean...if I can read the lyrics why do I need to buy the CD? Sounds obvious to me!

  2. And here I thought... by mikeophile · · Score: 4, Funny

    a double moral hazard would be an evening with the Hilton sisters.

  3. Better still... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Pass legislation establishing a breif hunting season on lawyers representing trade associations.

  4. Double - moral hazard? by jea6 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Also known as damned if you do, damned if you don't.

    --

    sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
  5. Filesharing by SisyphusShrugged · · Score: 4, Funny

    The truth of the matter is, I feel no qualms whatsoever for downloading musical files (actually I probably dont listen to any label that is part of the RIAA anyway)

    This is the crux of the problem, although they have scared the P2P Kazaa kiddies off with the RIAA's actions that has done nothing but make the P2P more well run and it is now the dominion of ./ers with super high speed connections sharing high quality files.

    An analagous situation can be seen with the "War on Drugs", all it has done is improve the quality of the drugs being used!

    --
    Post apocalyptic gaming goodness
  6. Morals? by tinrobot · · Score: 4, Funny

    Moral Hazard implies that the record companies have morals.

    They don't.

  7. I'd Like to see that .... by Grizzlysmit · · Score: 4, Funny
    If the industry offered consumers the ability to simply return any music they did not like, consumers might return all of their music - even the music they did like - after having copied or consumed it. It would be as though restaurants offered money back guarantees you could exercise after having eaten your entire meal and you claimed you were dissatisfied.

    hmmm ... restaurants that had a return policy on food after eaten ... hmmmm fully proccessed or partial ... on second thoughts I don't want to know or see that!!

    --
    in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that :-D
    Francis Smit
  8. Re:One weakness of both articles: free always wins by lonesome+phreak · · Score: 2, Funny

    "They filled your entire field of vision!"

    Yes...the record covers, helped along by a few hits of acid. :)

    --
    Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.